It was a lucrative afternoon for punters at the Calcutta racecourse on Tuesday as fancied runners ruled the roost for most part. Jockey Imran Chisty continued to make this centre his happy hunting ground as he followed up his double on the first day with a smashing treble on this afternoon. All his three winners hail from the stables of Vikash Jaiswal and were fancied to win by the connections.

The main event, The Zipper Cup, saw a thrilling finish as bottom-weighted Double Do came with raking strides in the final 100 metres to get the better of Adabella at the wire. The Bharath Singh ward was ridden with great gusto by retained rider R. Vaibhav who thus opened his account at this centre. It was the first time that this sprinter won when ridden off the pace. If indeed it was a stable-strategy, then it was a brilliant one and executed with great finesse by the rising star from the south. Considering that speedsters like Macedonian and Smooth As Silk were vying for the early lead, it was a clever ploy to hold back the natural front-runner Double Do. That Vaibhav could coax a gallop out of him in the dying seconds was indeed a feather in his cap.

Incidentally, Double Do was also awarded the Mysore Race Club Cup run on March 26 as the original winner Royal Honour was found to be doped with Stanozolol, a performance enhancing anabolic steroid. Though the trainer has been suspended, punters who had backed Double Do on that occasion no doubt feel cheated of their rightful dues. But that’s racing! Sometimes the unscrupulous get the better of form-workers financially and are ready to face the consequences later.

Jockey Imran Chisty has been a railbird’s favourite at this centre for some time now and his performance on Tuesday must have endeared him to the local crowd even more. His first winner of three for the Jaiswal yard was Do Your Best (18/10). Lying a handy second behind Ambicka till the distance post, Do Your Best drew away to win quite easily from late finishing Shivalik Shakti.

Top-weight Kwan Yin (2/1) had to be hard ridden by Chisty to get the better of Hayata and Dancehall Days. The closing odds showed Essenza as the 18/10 favourite but his run was extremely poor, unworthy of a favourite. Chisty completed his treble with a well-judged ride on Black Caviour in the Aladancer Cup. The latter was badly blocked in his last essay over six furlongs won by Grand Design. On this occasion, Chisty had him racing on the heels of the well-gambled Blue Lightning and the duo made their run on the outside after the front-running hot favourite Cohiba had shot his bolt near the distance post. The favourite’s gross debacle reflects poorly on this year’s Calcutta Million field. Defeat would have been understandable for any youngster but an utter failure to match strides with older horses was somewhat lamentable.

Trainer Arti Doctor’s Climber (Arabian Gulf-Bushfire) made every post a winning one in the six-furlong race for the Amorina Plate. Tote favourite Chimeric was a none too impressive third. The runner-up Never Apart was one for the notebook. Jockey Arshad Alam utilised an inside draw and took the shortest route home.

Local darling Christopher Alford scored a short-priced double for schooler Vijay Singh, but not before bringing all his experience into play. While Almarada won the opening event as she liked, Jalapeno Pepper was hard pressed to win the last race close home. In fact, Alford had initially decided to make a rails run but the filly shied away after a crack of the whip, which is when the saddle artist changed his mind in the nick of time and allowed her to drift out and make a free run on the outer rails. Alford’s presence of mind may have saved the day for quite a few big punters. Other than which, front-running Colourful Dreams (who too was not maintaining a straight course) may have pulled it off. But all is well that ends well, and indeed it was so for followers of Calcutta’s champion jockey!