Pesi Shroff-trained Mariinsky (Burden Of Proof-Sabre Dance) proved too good for the local fillies as she displayed spectacular acceleration in the straight to sail past Escape To Victory and pocket the Calcutta Fillies Trial Stakes in style. It was yet another success from the stud farm known as Kunigal. Local challenger Adabella (C.Alford up) opted for the rails but failed to accelerate at a crucial juncture while Trevor Patel did just enough to bring home the bacon. Shaktiroop was quite obviously short of a preparatory run.

There was quite a bit of drama in the last couple of races as jockey F Da Silva’s inexperience of the local monsoon track and Calcutta’s treacherous hairpin was palpably exposed. Multimagic it was who set a scorching pace in The Colts Trial Stakes, while Shailesh Shinde positioned Argiano (Warrshan-Santarelle) handily just behind the front-runner. Initially Captain Courageous (F Da Silva up) was in a box seat but a brief moment of indecision at the top of the straight followed by a bout of some inexplicable use of the whalebone may have cost him the race. Totally new to the monsoon track and the short local straight, Da Silva initially thought he could forge a passage between the front-running pair but then changed his mind and decided to take his mount on the outside. Unfortunately, with a couple of cracks, the colt veered out badly to the outer rails, whereby Da Silva switched his whiphand with disastrous effects. The colt responded to his master’s call but ducked in viciously, which could have resulted in a nasty ending. But thankfully that was not to be. Meanwhile, Shinde and Argiano were utterly focussed on the business at hand and hoisted the winning flag for the leading red-and-gold stable of Vijay Singh.

If Da Silva had been done in by inexperience of the monsoon track in the Colts Trial, he ought to have learnt his lesson and ridden a better race atop Calypso Girl in the afternoon’s final event. Unfortunately, he practically repeated the same mistake as from a good position at the top of the straight, he switched to the outer rails and lost immense ground and a certain race by the proverbial whisker. Oh how one missed the safe and sure hands of B. Sreekanth on this afternoon! Shivalik Shakti, under the care of Christopher Gleich, pulled off an opportunistic victory as Mohit Singh steered his mount through  an opening along the rails.

In the opening event of the day, Inspirational (Da Silva up) was on a start-to-finish mission and seemed to have successfully shrugged off the favourite Sham Sunder. He however fell to the handicap-horse Sreeyantra – a new addition to the Deepak Karki stable, who was piloted by apprentice Zarar Alam and made her run on the wide outside.

Despite any recent form to go by, Robert Gowli-trained Lake Sunrise made eve every post a winning one in the hands of Trevor Patel. The fancied pair of Leandro and Iconic followed him all the way in the Arezzo Handicap.

The first of the three cup-events, The Bold Raider Cup, saw top-weight Snow Princess win in the hands of PS Chouhan. The other fancied runner Smart Hunter lost a little ground at the start but made up the leeway in the straight and made a bold attempt to get on par with the ‘Princess’ but Chouhan never relaxed the pressure despite putting away the whip and riding her out hands-and-heels in the final 50 metres.

Jockey Christopher Alford rode his sole winner of the day astride Shafiq Khan-trained Shershah in the AQ Qidwai Cup run over seven furlongs. The property of  Mr. Rustom E Daroga collared the front-running Batista without much ado and also successfully kept at bay the bottom-weight Poles Apart.

Vijay Singh-trained Aerator showed his penchant for middle distances when he made a start-to-finish affair of the Alternator Cup to record his second successive triumph this season. The five-year-old came on with a second wind after being challenged strongly by the on-money public choice Malpensa. The winner was piloted by Shailesh Shinde who later completed a brace with Argiano.