Manvendra Singh-trained Artesia cantered to an effortless victory in the Calcutta St Leger. The short-priced filly by Multidimensional out of Trois Etoiles thus added the longest classic to her kitty after bagging the Calcutta Oaks last December. The surprise package was in fact the pacemaker Exclusive Colours who finished runner-up, well ahead of second favourite Arabian Warrior. The latter does not seem too happy to be ridden off the pace.

As expected, there were upsets galore during the afternoon, commencing with the very first race, the upper division of The Aayush Handicap. Bath-schooled Orzare (Shezad Khan up) pegged back fancied runner Lassy at the post while Style Dan was a close third. The lower division of the same race saw Christopher Alford atop Resolution try to make it a start-to-finish affair but his effort came to nought as Suraj Narredu astride Bharath Singh-trained Kabini rode a power-packed finish to edge past the front-runner close home. As Resolution had already had the benefit of a forward run in the Calcutta Million, one can’t help but wonder in retrospect what would have been the outcome had Resolution been ridden for eventual speed. Of course, the question arises whether he would have responded at all. Kabini, Artesia and Multimagic were the only favourites to oblige in a card of nine events.

Vikash Jaiswal’s Drop The Pressure (Md Javed up) must have raised the diastolic of all hypertensive punters as he made every post of the Aloritz Cup a winning one – staving off a strong challenge from hot public choice Iron Lady in the final furlong. Jamaican did show a bit of early speed before finishing third. The bottom-weighted filly Gorgeous Girl may prefer the lower category.

Handicapper Virani must be a happy man as the first four handicap races all produced close finishes. In fact, the upper division of the MB Medhora Cup saw the first six finishers end up within a length of each other. Apprentice Md Javed picked up the second of his two winners when he rode out Vijay Singh-trained Elusive Legend to land the spoils. Modus Vivendi, Rithambhra and Burst Of Stardust were all at the busy end but missed out narrowly.

The lower division of the same Cup saw Spectacular Style put an end to all the hype surrounding Alondra as he waited patiently till the filly started to wilt in the straight and then collared her close home. Alondra’s outside draw may have taken a toll on her as C.Alford quickly took the lead as the gates opened. Sandeep Rajput atop the Vikash Jaiswal winner played the ‘opportunist’ card when he realised all was not hunky dory with the front-running filly.

Yet another hyped up filly from the Vijay Singh yard was Astatki. She was backed to the exclusion of all others in the race for the Royal Challenge Cup but did little to justify the faith that her connections had reposed in her. Front-runner Noble Defender lost all his chances as he drifted to the outer rails at the turning for home. Astatki had a smooth passage home but did not have it in her to pocket the race. She was being niggled at by Essenza and the pair were in for a rude shock as the back-benchers Something Stupid and In The Sunlight raised late gallops to finish one-two. After a hiatus of four races, Head Hunter was tried on this occasion but to no avail.

The Midnight Cowboy Cup saw Arti Doctor-trained Multimagic installed as the favourite and ridden purposefully by C.Alford. While Rising Power and Bullet went at each other’s throats till the distance post Alford had his mount tucked in along the rails. He looked for the all important space between the two runners from the top of the straight and was successful in his quest well inside the distance post. At the wire, Multimagic retired a comfortable winner. He thus proved himself a top-class sprinter.

The Patrick Quinn stable boldly declared Abhishek Habbu to ride the top-weight Monsieur Strauss in the last race of the day. The front-runner made every post a winning one to pull off a major coup for them. Bucharest and Flash both threatened to overhaul him close home but the winning post came to the Monsieur’s rescue.