It was an afternoon of competitive and interesting racing at the Calcutta racecourse on Saturday with punters and bookmakers sharing the spoils. Four hot public choices and two second favourites occupied the winner’s enclosure in a card of nine races. The other three events saw unfancied runners to the fore. These were Sham Sunder, Rappadan Glory and Sheriff.

The main event of the afternoon, The Calcutta Monsoon Sprint, saw Vijay Singh-trained Dandified do an encore as he romped home effortlessly with Christopher Alford doing precious little except keeping a lookout for any possible threats in the straight – there were none as his three rivals were going nowhere. The best of the rest turned out to be River Star.

The Adriana Cup saw Sheriff defy his earlier winning penalty after an essay in the upper class where he finished third to Tasveer. The winner, from Sabeel Shariff’s yard,  was piloted by apprentice Rajput. In fact he pulled off an improbable win as Skyway had sailed past him and opened up a gap of about one-and-half lengths, before the large-hearted horse came up with a second wind, much in the same fashion that he had done against Dancing Dame. The latter was slow off and ran a miserable race while the other fancied runner Akilina broke her blood vessels and returned bleeding. It may have been a little too much to expect from her a little too early in her career.

The Ballet Master Cup witnessed a tense duel between hot favourite Beyond Stars and Arti Doctor-schooled Al Attaturk in the straight. Shezad Khan atop the latter, nursed his mount well and got him into a good position at the top of the straight where beyond Stars took over the running from Abubble. Thereafter Shezad coaxed a winning gallop out of his mount going hands-and-heels. It was indeed good, measured riding all the way as per the experienced trainer’s directions and the much improved four-year-old responded magnificently. Tasveer finished a flying third and looks very much the filly in form.

The Rutherford stable had cause to celebrate as their runner Rappadan Glory pulled off an unlikely win in  the hands of a rookie apprentice Ankit Kumar. The lad thus recorded his maiden triumph. The sprinter bisected the fancied front-running pair of Isle Of Capri and Songstress without much ado to claim the upper division of the Araphoe Handicap. Secret Gloss left all her chances at the gates.

Vikash Jaiswal-trained Sham Sunder was the first of the three unfancied runners to send shockwaves into the stands. This mount of Nelson Maseyk sailed away after collaring the front-running favourite Good Wood Princess. Sreeyantra ran on to occupy the runner-up berth while the disappointment in the race was Hurricane Bird.

The curtain-raiser saw a rip-roaring finish as the favourite Baskerville had to stave off a dual attack from the likes of Tough One and the totally friendless Secret Spark. The Robert Gowli ward thus notched up his second consecutive win in the hands of B.Mahesh.

Robert Gowli completed a brace as Charlemagne made the As Ever Handicap a start-to-finish affair in the hands of Vinay Jaiswal. Arrow In Auto Mode found his galloping shoes at last as he finished on the wide outside to be good runner-up.

Though Giocrat and Chhundu were quietly fancied by their respective stables, the duo had no answer to the classy Amarilla (C.Alford up) from Vijay Singh’s yard in the Super Sunrise Handicap. The winner however drifted out to the outer rails.

The curtain came down with Shailesh Shinde guiding hot favourite Conquest to victory without any hiccups. The Javed Khan-trained filly was judiciously handled from an outside draw and had to peg back a strong challenge from unexpected quarters in the form of Spectacular Style.

DAVID,  JASBIR SUSPENDED

The Stewards of RCTC have suspended Trainer Daniel David till the end of September 2013 for his scuffle at the stables with a handler while trainer Jasbir Singh has been stood down till the end of November 2013 for his charge Star Success testing positive for an anabolic steroid.