Tuesday afternoon belonged to trainer Vijay Singh and jockey Christopher Alford as they both recorded trebles. The successful duo combined on two of their winners. The main event, The Robert Bruce Handicap, saw second favourite Macedonian make a start-to-finish affair in the hands of Christopher Alford. The Manvendra Singh ward was slightly fortunate in that the favourite Double Do fly-jumped from an inside draw and lost several lengths. The Bharath Singh ward with Shezad Khan astride, had not behaved in this manner in the past and it came as bit of a surprise to his backers. The pressure  of being the piping hot favourite may have got to the speedy colt and made him panic a trifle in the stalls! I sincerely hope that there are sufficient takers for that hypothesis among my readers.

C.Alford’s handling of front-runners on the local track is a treat to watch and Macedonian always had a little extra when those immediately behind him threatened to play ‘catch-up’. If one may compare, Robin Corner of the seventies and eighties had a similar mastery of this craft at his home centre and would guide home countless winners in this manner.

The Vijay Singh-trained pair that were first past the winning post in Alford’s hands were both on-money horses. The first to hoist the winning flag was half-money public choice Mr Gorgeous who made it a one-horse race after collaring Tempa Rossa before the bend. Thereafter, Alford and Vijay brought the curtain down with a spunky little filly named Scartella who bagged the lower division of The Voluntary Cup. The fashion of winning by the small-made chestnut by Noverre out of Saabikah suggests that she may hoist the winning flag again before the season end.

In between these two winners, Vijay Singh had led in Aviette in the Portofino Handicap. Shailesh Shinde had little to no trouble in warding off Jimmy Fortune’s mount Antara in the home stretch. Front-running Knight Of The Realm called it quits at the top of the straight and Aviette smoothly took over the running.

The afternoon commenced with Jasbir Singh-schooled Fankaar being the subject of a large gamble as he was backed down from 6/1 to 18/10 favouritism in the upper division of the Voluntary Cup. While apprentice Javed on Elusive Legend was going start-to-finish, both the front-line contenders Sartaj and Fankaar were running in mid-division. The duo made their run as heads turned for home and went neck-to-neck all the way down the straight. David-trained Sartaj eventually prevailed over his nearest rival as apprentice Azhharuddin rode a more forceful finish. The same trainer-rider combo brought home the bacon with Afrah in the Topspin Handicap. It was another good ride by the apprentice to get the better of Fortune’s mount Tropical Blue who was fortunate enough to find an opening along the rails to finish runner-up.

Of his three mounts, Fortune could only return with top honours in his first ride astride Royal Scots. The five-year-old from Bharath Singh’s yard made every post a winning one in the 1100 metres race for the Cupid Handicap. Silver Silver had to be content to play best man once again while top-weight Broken Arrow looked a shade rusty and will be better off after this outing.

Jockey S. Kamble rode a power-packed finish astride Iconic to land the spoils in The Ming Dynasty Handicap. The Arti Doctor-schooled five-year-old gelding was taken via the shortest route along the rails as front-running Cee Four drifted out in the straight. Surprise package Alicante finished the unlikely runner-up.