Iaepetus, who had gone down fighting as a favourite, in the lower category carrying 60 kilos on his back on the opening day, relished the bottom weight, to literarily canter home in the Independence Cup. Jumping out well from outside draw, P.S.Chouhan took Iaepetus to the front early, in the seven furlong trip, and never gave an opportunity to the rest of the field to get anywhere close to him. Shehzad Abbas trains the winner for Dr. & Mrs.Syed Ainuddin Arif and Mr.M.Suresh Kumar Reddy.

Trainer Vittal Deshmukh had another good day at office, adding two more to his tally, to reach double figures early in the season. Both his winners were public fancies. Pythagoras registered an easy victory in the lower division of the Vijayanagaram Plate, the first race of the afternoon on Saturday. Jockey Roopesh, who had to bite the dust on his earlier two runs this season, had no difficulty in getting Pythagoras past the early leader Kohinoor Aditi in the small field of seven runners.

The other winner, Cat of the Course gave some anxious moments to her supporters before winning the Amba Alagi Plate. Baywatch Babe had taken a commanding lead on the straight with the favourite Cat of the Course struggling to raise a gallop in mid field. Within the final furlong, Baywatch Babe started to show distress signals shortening her stride and Cat of the Course came up with a sustained run to get the better of the Babe, much to the relief of her supporters.

The Grand Parade Cup witnessed close finishes in both the divisions. Four horses came in one frame, in the lower division, the friendless Flash Flares getting the nod in his favour. Superflous, Colourful and Flash Flares fought out every inch of the last 100 metres with the latter prevailing by a short head over Colourful. Rostock finished fourth behind Superflous with a late run.

Blazing Bounty and J.H.Christopher won the higher division and had to wait to get the verdict cleared at the steward’s room. Blazing Bounty led from the word ‘go’ and nearing the winning post shifted in sharply, thereby coming in the path of Feudal Lords who was by then beginning to gather momentum. Feudal Lords who lost stride by the interference and finished fourth lodged an objection against the winner which was overruled. Girl of Love and Red River Rebel who were getting close with every stride finished behind the winner in that order.

Anupam Sharma’s ward, Smrithiman managed to scrape through in the higher division of the Vijayanagaram Plate. With a four length lead, passing the distance post, Smrithiman began to slow down and the jockey looked back a couple of times just to check if he could manage to scramble through to the post. The favourite Green Mist got closer with every stride but the winning post came to the rescue of Smrithiman.  

Jet Express came out successful in the Noble Quest Plate, the concluding race. Making every post a winning one in the five and a half furlong trip, Jet Express warded off the challenge of Spectacular Hero towards the finish.