After an initial jolt, punters by and large returned home a happy lot on Wednesday as three piping hot favourites and two second favourites occupied the winner’s enclosure. The main event, The Zipper Cup, saw Robert Gowli-trained Bullet come good in the hands of Christopher Alford. Dear Henry called the early shots but was easily passed by Bullet after entering the straight. The favourite River Star was handily placed at that point but found the eventual winner in no mood to relent and lost the runner-up berth to top-weighted Shershah who seems to have become a perpetual threat these days.

Shailesh Shinde enjoyed two joy rides to bring home a brace. The first of these was Robert Gowli’s Jamaican (Lucifer Sam-Spanish Volume) who was never in any danger from runner-up Significant as he romped home well clear in the seven-furlong race for the Idaho Handicap. Bath-trained Lantana Lady was a winner at every post as she treated her rivals with utter disdain. The daughter of Sedgefield out of Linette has more races in store for her.

The opening race of the afternoon, the Zelda Handicap, gave punters quite a jolt as the two fancied runners from the Vijay Singh stable were never in it. While second favourite Uniqueness burst her blood vessels, the even-money public fancy Axstone was slow into stride and never quite recovered to eventually finish a poor fourth. Bhungard’s Romancer set a scorching pace and looked to be headed for the winning post until he started to drift out badly in the straight. Taking the cue, Manvendra Singh’s Luck Luck Lucky (Kadam up) switched to the rails and pulled off a stunning victory. ‘Stunning’ because his last run was extremely poor – a phenomenal improvement indeed.

Top-weighted Always Welcome from Arti Doctor’s yard quite easily accounted for the opposition in the sprint for The Regal Bear Handicap. Shezad Khan enjoyed an armchair ride astride the daughter of Alnasr Alwasheek out of Rasha as she sailed past front-running Isle Of Capri without batting an eyelid. Over-raced seven-year-old Spectacular Style plodded on for the runner-up berth and continued to earn stake money for his connections – a game runner indeed.

The biggest disappointment of the afternoon was indeed Patrick Quinn-schooled Snow Ball who was taken to the helm of affairs as the gates opened and appeared to be merrily chugging along till challenged by both Ocean Sunrise and Arbroath. At the end of the day, Vikash Jaiswal’s Ocean Sunrise staved off a strong challenge from Arbroath to win the Elistano Handicap. Brother Vinay astride the eventual winner used the whip judiciously to pull off a good win for the stable. Apprentice Munna Alam atop Arbroath did his best but lacked the final punch as he is not permitted the use of the whip.

Owner Rishi Anand must be a very happy man as the Jaiswal stable completed a pricey double with his other runner River Pride in the day’s final event. This time Imran Cisty made no mistake as he waited till the 600 marker before bidding adios to much fancied Fire Dragon who was struggling. The closing favourite Roesti was there till the mid-way point before dropping out of contention. It was left to the ever-consistent Vaani to issue a late challenge to River Pride.