Despite a short card of seven events, the mid-week Calcutta races had its moments. In a way, the afternoon belonged to the Alford family and jockey Imran Chisty. The latter rode a winner (Burst Of Stardust) for trainer Richard Alford and then went on to complete a well-deserved double when he guided son Rutherford’s Gentle Knowledge to a flawless victory in the day’s feature – The Metropolitan.

As expected, the nine-horse field for the latter sprint was led early by speedsters Rising Power and River Star. Much fancied top-weight Bullet was in the box seat in third slot while Imran Chisty settled down the favourite nicely behind these three. Crown Rule was travelling just behind the front bunch but not as smoothly as one would have liked him to. He was being pushed even before the bend.

The order remained more or less the same with River Star drifting out in the straight and Gentle Knowledge moving up with a smooth run to sail past both the front-runner and Bullet. The front trio finished in that order.

Earlier, Chisty had rather cleverly piloted the 6/1 shot Burst Of Stardust to a facile victory in the opener of the day, The Samarkhand Handicap. Lying a handy third along the rails behind Apyrous and Ice Festival, Chisty bisected the duo to sail past them in a trice and go clear of the field. Prematurely fancied runners Badly Behaved and Scartella will benefit from this run and will be worth keeping an eye on.

Next to grab the limelight was another Alford – leading jockey Christopher rode an understanding race atop the top-weight Exclusive Colours from Vijay Singh’s yard. He nursed the son of Multidimensional out of Glorious Colours in the second last berth while the likes of Combined Operation and Afrah called the shots. Masachusettes was lying third. The order remained virtually the same till the last named took over the running in the straight, closely chased by the favourite. Christopher rode him hands and heels in the home straight to win impressively in good timing. Schwarzenegger, who was in the rear of the field, ran on to occupy the runner-up berth.

The 5/2 favourite in the race for maidens was Vijay Singh-schooled Elusive Moment who had failed couple of times earlier in the season. Robert Gowli has not been too successful this season and his ward Lexi was freely available at 4/1. Md Islam, who rode the latter, was well placed along the rails and applied the pressure in the straight when she drifted out under the whip to cut across front-running Stormy Petrel and take out Ristretto and the favourite who was making his move on the wide outside. Islam was quick to change his whiphand and make a beeline for the winning post. Elusive Moment is certain to do better over an extended trip.

One would have thought that the withdrawal of Monsieur Strauss in the Glasgow Courser Handicap would have left the course clear for the favourite Richest Treasure but it was not to be as speedy Sreevahini made it a start-to-finish affair despite drifting out across the track. Richest Treasure and Daddy Cool made their runs along the railing side but failed to collar the speedster.

Patrick Quinn’s Assassin came back to winning ways with a clever victory in the RCTC Riding School Cup. PS Chouhan had him handily placed third behind Rappadan Glory and What A Feeling and then took the shortest route home. The disappointment in  the race was Blue Lightning who never raised a gallop. She appears to have lost some of her zest for racing. It was in fact Iron Lady who moved late under Dashrath’s strong handling to be a good second.

Rather amazingly, Shafiq Khan-trained Impressive Move pulled of a win in the afternoon’s final event, The Thundering Hooves Handicap. Just when it seemed that Piaffe and PS Chouhan had the race within their grasp, Shezad Khan coaxed a gallop out of the five-year-old who had been without a win for over a year.