At nine years of age, Leo’s Coral Gables, who has a big heart, carried a back breaking  63.5 kilos and trounced the opposition much younger than him, in the highest category to lift the Madras Race Club Cup. Coral Gables repeated his winter performance where he had beaten Champ Forever. On entering the straight, Coral Gables shot into the lead and left the rest of the field well behind. Champ Forever improved only to beat the rest as the veteran was too good to even get close. Speaking to India Race after the race the trainer Leo said that Coral Gables who was to retire after winter, was allowed to race for another year by the club, as a special case, after the owners realized that he still had the zest for racing.

Two of Vittal Deshkmukh’s youngsters, who were summered at Bangalore, won in effortless fashion. Siph Salar who had missed the winning berth on two occasions in Bangalore cleared his maiden status convincingly in the opener. After an impressive win in Bangalore, Lone Ranger was backed to the exclusion of the other runners in the packed field of sixteen. Entering the home stretch, Lone Ranger surged ahead and was never in any anxiety. Grand Rapids could only manage to pass the early leader Kohinoor King to finish second. Jockey R.Roopesh who has been engaged by Deshmukh for the season rode both the winners.

 Trainer K.V. Srinivas, who had led in three winners on the opening day, sent out another shocker in the higher division of the Fond Hope Plate, a race for three year old maidens. Divine Ganges gradually improved along the rails and slipped through the wide gap that was provided by Hundred Flowers who was fighting out with the much fancied Vijaysarathi.

The connections of Zycon must have had a good touch on her as the price indicated, moving southwards before the race, in the higher division of the S.S.Cardmaster Memorial Cup. Back from Bangalore where she had two outings, Zycon found a forward position on jumping out and made every post a winning one. The other returnee from Bangalore, Above the Line finished third behind Suchiman and these two were in futile chase of the winner throughout the race. Superflous was withdrawn after she refused to move into the gates.

The lower division was won by Aphrodisiac after stirring duel with Scubario throughout the straight. Both of them had returned from Bangalore where the former had won a race convincingly. It is certainly beneficial to follow horses that were stationed at Bangalore during summer as they tend to put on form during their stay.

The favourite Kohinoor Magic led by four lengths on the straight but started to send distress signals towards the final stages and the top weighted Fantastic Boy who was chasing the leader throughout passed him close home to win the Anantapur Plate.

The Subash Chandra Bose Plate was divided into two races. The lower division was won by the well supported Phar Lap who made every post a winning one. Grey Shot just managed to scrape through in the higher division from Bakersfield. Ruby Rouge took an early lead in the five and a half furlong trip but packed up midway up the straight. Grey Shot who was in tow throughout, surged ahead and held on from Bakersfield who had to cover a lot of ground on the straight.