Punters by and large returned a happy lot on Saturday as several well-backed totalisator favourites obliged at lucrative odds. The weather was cloudy but dry and the track ran true. The main event, The Calcutta Million, was an absolute edge of the seat thriller with Bharath Singh-trained Sunshine Girl edging out the on-money public choice Running Thunder at the wire. An elated sole owner of the filly, Mr Joydeep Datta Gupta was, needless to say, absolutely bowled over by his filly’s champagne performance. “This kind of performance deserves a champagne celebration,” added a smiling Mr Datta Gupta. And indeed so!

 It was yet another triumph for a Multidimensional progeny in a graded race. Sired by this freshman sire (who has already carved out a niche for himself) out of Prevalence, jockey Sandesh gave the filly plenty of extra ground to cover to avoid traffic problems. But the compactly built bay did not disappoint as she raised an astounding gallop once shown daylight, even after being taken eight wide from an inside draw. Incidentally, Prevalence had been known to stay well and Ave Maria, a progeny of her who raced at Hyderabad was comfortable over 2200 metres. So, the connections of Sunshine Girl can definitely hope for greater things from her.

The pre-race betting was entirely on the on-money favourite Running Thunder and Imran Chisty ensured that the carrier of the public purse gave his backers a run for their money. Lying a handy third behind front-running Desert Fox (who was actually setting the pace for second favourite stablemate Sylvana), Chisty shot ahead with his mount at the top of the straight and looked to have the mile race in the bag. However, it was not to be as Sandesh had other ideas and did rather well to snatch the ‘million’ purse from the favourite close home.

The ‘second’ running of the Police Commissioner’s Cup saw the same two horses (Sergeant Major and Andreus) in the betting as was the case on January 18, but the revised handicaps saw the latter reverse the roles and make it a start-to-finish affair. Jockey Shailesh Shinde and trainer Vijay Singh were so confident of their ward’s performance that they took no chances and simply gave the four-year-old his head from the outset. Smart Hunter too was better placed at weights from an earlier meeting with the ‘Major’ and he proved it by finishing ahead of him. Revised handicaps is one of many tools that punters need to be proficient with to spot a winner (or even spot a certain loser). The disappointment in the race was Lantana Lady.

Manvendra Singh’s Shamrock made every post a winning one in the opening race, The Spats Colombo Handicap.  Top-weight favourite Tintoretto cried off after issuing a challenge mid-way up the straight. Gorgeous Girl finished on from way back to be a good runner-up.

After his eye-catching third in the Avaglow Handicap, there was simply no stopping Shafiq Khan-trained Impressive Glory in the Burning Desire Handicap run over seven furlongs. Christopher Alford took him to the front as the gates opened and stayed there all the way. Though he closed as the totalisator favourite, he was available at 3/1 in the books. In this race, the jockey (Janardhan) and trainer (Shariff) of Al Attaturk were suspended for six months and fined Rs 50,000 respectively for the dissatisfactory handling of their mount.

Winner of two races, Amorino, met his match in the Crystal Man Plate when he was pegged back close home by Manvendra Singh’s Reanna who was receiving 7.5 kg from the favourite. The winner was piloted by Dashrath who coaxed an outstanding gallop out of her in the straight. The other fancied runner (Zegna) was never in the race.

Trainer Javed Khan was a happy man as he picked up his first post-suspension winner with Rising Power. The five-year-old bagged the Areonative Cup start to finish in Sandesh’s hands and warded off Charlemagne without too much fuss. Jockey B. Sreekanth brought the curtain down with David-trained Spur Of The Moment. Words (Afzal Khan up) threatened to pull it off, as he was the fastest moving in the final furlong, but failed narrowly in his quest.