A heavy shower just before the start of the first race left the monsoon track sluggish, but it did not stop trainer Patrick Quinn and outstation jockey Sandesh from combining fruitfully to notch up a brace with Grand Design and Assassin. Another visiting talent to fetch home a pricey double was none other than the forceful finisher Imran Chisty. Local riders Christopher Alford and Shailesh Shinde drew a blank on the opening afternoon as did champion trainer Vijay Singh.

The main event, The Citi Limits Cup, saw Patrick Quinn-trained Assassin outclass the opposition in the hands of Sandesh. Runner-up Conquest lost position drastically after a good jump-out when squeezed for the lead by Apical Finala. She made up ground before the turning for home but caught a tartar in the winner who was galloping smoothly away from the field when Sandesh shot him into the lead at the top of the straight.

One hour earlier, Sandesh did not have things his own way when he piloted the ten-to-seven-on favourite Grand Design to a difficult victory in the Alibi Handicap. The eventual winner was given a fright by Bharath Singh-trained Sokudo (R. Vaibhav up) who tried to steal a march at the top the straight.

Tuesday racing is permitting local owners to bring riding talent from across the country and they are undoubtedly getting their money’s worth from the lads. Without taking away anything from our local riders, it is a fact that sporting stables prefer leading outstation jockeys so that their runners get a run for their money. It is quite unlikely that Sokudo would have been ‘right there’ without Vaibhav’s help from the saddle. Sandesh for his part rode a great finish, as he seized an opening along the rails and never let go of the advantage by using the whalebone relentlessly. The rest of the field were never really in it.

Jockey Imran Chisty played spoilsport for punters in the opening event of the season as he coaxed a thunderous late gallop out of Vikash Jaiswal-trained Gorgeous to get the better of the piping hot favourite Astatki (C.Alford up) close home. Chisty then completed his double with Rutherford-trained Pick Pocket in the Andrada Plate for three-year-olds. The bay gelding made it a start-to-finish affair without any threat whatsoever from the top-weight favourite Ristretto. Pinball Wizard was a fairly good second but lost to a superior youngster.

The two divisions of The Fairy Heights Handicap saw favourites bite the dust. In the upper division, top-weighted Romancer was badly out at weights and he plodded on an unimpressive fourth. Sameer Khan took Sarfaraz Khan-trained Words to the helm of affairs as the gates opened and was hotly pursued by the two apprentice rides (Burst Of Stardust and Petaloid). Under the stick, Words did not yield to the last named who was threatening to collar him mid-way up the straight. The winning jockey was another good import for the season.

The lower division saw rank outsider Ice Fantasy from Bharath Singh’s yard make every post a winning one in the hands of Md Islam – the only local rider to open his account. It was possibly the most open race of the afternoon and the fact that unfancied Xavier ran on to occupy the runner-up berth, corroborates that statement.

The last race of the day saw Vikash Jaiswal-trained No Looking Back being backed as if defeat was out of the question. The fact is that despite Imran Chisty riding him flat out in the straight, he failed to place. Bharath Singh’s Snow White (R. Vaibhav up) appeared to have the race in the bag as she pulled away in the straight from Elusive Legend but was stunned by Arti Doctor-trained Flash at the wire. The 8/1 shot was hemmed in along the rails but came through with a lightning gallop in the final 100 metres when Arshad Alam urged her on under the stick. Flash is normally known to be a front-runner and the versatility displayed by her on this occasion could help her win more races in the future.