The final afternoon of racing was one where equine power was interlaced with art and culture, as all the events were sponsored by art connoisseur Vikram Bachhawat and his associates. The weather was warm and sunny and racing was to say the least – entertaining. The feature of the afternoon was The Bachhawat Foundation Trophy, run over seven furlongs for horses in Class II. Patrick Quinn’s Assassin and Arti Doctor’s Shaktiroop were the only two horses being backed. The latter closed as the 5/4 favourite.

After the horses settled down, Assassin was the one which took up the running and was seen to gallop quite freely up front. The favourite moved up from mid-division to be at the front-runner’s tail after heads turned for home. Jockey JH Christopher urged his mount and took up the running in the straight and appeared to have the race in the bag at the distance post.  However, top-weight jockey B Mahesh atop Noble And Nice had other ideas and the colt moved with raking strides on the outside from the rear of the field to pip Shaktiroop at the post.

Champion trainer Vijay Singh, who drew a blank in the first half of the card, ended with flying colours with a treble in the back-four (to use a golfing term). His winners were Free Energy, Anassa and Ace Glory, ridden by Shailesh Shinde, Md Javed and Christopher Alford respectively.

On-money public choice Free Energy was piloted rather cleverly by Shailesh as he waited patiently with his mount along the rails while Xipen called the shots. Sure enough, the gap materialised along the rails at the top of the straight and there was simply no stopping the son of Phoenix Tower out of Freefall thereafter. He won as he liked.

Anassa had the misfortune of running into Torch Of Life and dropping back abruptly in her previous essay. There was no such hard-luck story on this occasion as the 10/1 shot was ridden a little off the pace while Seafarer and Bongani showed the way. Apprentice Javed put her into top gear in the straight and she had no difficulty whatsoever in outclassing the field.

Ace Glory won the Aarkriti Arts Gallery Trophy, thanks to some hard riding by Christopher Alford. It was a befitting end for the champion jockey who timed his run to perfection. In his last effort, Shinde up, the colt was seen to move well in the final furlong when the race was as  good as over.

The afternoon commenced with jockey A. Sandesh riding a flawless race astride the favourite Badly Behaved from Javed Khan’s yard, to leave the field cold. This was in stark contrast to his last essay where he was severely interfered. The other fancied runner Almarada ran all over the place to finish a faraway second. The late starter (five-year-old mare) will be better off after this run.

Manvedra Singh’s Dancehall Day’s was surprisingly available at lucrative odds of 3/1. However, the filly very nearly bit the dust as she was placed inadvertently on the outside of a ‘habitual drifter’ Noble Defender by outstation jockey Trevor Patel. It was in fact a grave error on part of the stable and they very nearly paid the price. If jockey Trevor was aware of the front-runner’s shortcoming, then it’s very much his responsibility. Otherwise, the responsibility lies squarely with the trainer to inform his rider (especially a visiting one) about any possible rival who is likely to be a menace in the race. Anyway, all is well that ends well and the stable must consider themselves rather fortunate that the filly was taken to the outer rails and yet won in a close finish from Xavier. If she had been ridden a little more deftly, she would won by a handsome margin. In this race, jockey MF Ali Khan suffered a fall from Fiery Ciel.

The biggest outsider of the day was Jasbir Singh’s Razmaden (M.Krishna up) who raised a surprise gallop in the straight to get the better of runaway leader Altanza. One wonders why an experienced stable jockey like C.Alford or Shinde was not declared astride her. She may then have pulled it off by hugging the rails. Munna Alam failed to control his mount in the straight and she drifted out. Moreover, the whip-less rider failed to exert any kind of pressure on his mount in the final furlong.

The Konark Collectables Trophy saw second favourite Grand Design, from Quinn’s yard, land the spoils after public choice Jalapeno Pepper had called it a day near the distance post. In this race Brangelina suffered a fall near the half-way mark and had to be put down. The faller was right in front of Head Hunter who then went into reverse gear.  

Thus ended a five-month long season, a summary of which will be posted shortly. The leading owner was chairman of RCTC, Mr Deepak Khaitan, while the two most successful horses (Snowdrift and Aviette) were both from his yard. Snowdrift was the Champion Horse while Aviette was the ‘Horse of the Season’ with five wins on the trot.