By and large, punters enjoyed a successful afternoon at the Sunday races after the annual Durga Puja festival in the city. Six well-backed runners obliged in a card of nine races while outsiders like Su Chaliyo and Ace Of Fire found few takers.

On a pleasantly warm, sunny day, The Calcutta Monsoon Derby was conducted without any glitches and the best horse undoubtedly won. And how! Pesi Shroff-trained Tiger Tops arrived during Derby week but maintained her smashing western India form with a few easy workouts. She had travelled well and the connections were confident. Nevertheless, the Tiger Hill – Cockayne (Sohna Stud) filly was available at evens, possibly in view of this being her first run at this centre against the famed red-and-gold brigade  who had three in the line-up of eight, including final entrant Fly Like The Wind, who had incurred a late-entry fee of Rs 9 lakh.

As the starter sounded the gun, the forward favourite from western India was first out of the gates but as if on cue, the stable of Vijay Singh used Aptness (ironically with local champ C.Alford astride) as a pacemaker, possibly in the hope of upsetting the outstation challenger. But, it was not to be. In fact, jockey Zervan seemed quite happy to sit behind the pacemaker and wait for him to run out of gas, which he eventually did near the 600 marker. Hoping to pounce on the favourite were the pair of The General and Fly Like The Wind. But their hopes were dashed by the quick-fire acceleration of the eventual winner who kept increasing the lead till Zervan eventually eased her off fifty metres from home. The winner took home a purse of Rs 50 lakh plus while the runner-up Fly Like The Wind pocketed Rs 19 lakh plus, which is more than twice her final-entry fee. Thus, all in all, it was more or less a happy ending for all concerned.

Trainer Daniel David returned to the scene after serving out a suspension period and recommenced his training engagements with a bang, as his Phy Eau Liang (Rebuttal-Hunan/ Hazara Stud) won a hard-fought opener with Dashrath Singh astride. Lying fourth of six while Simple Simon called the shots, Dashrath only made his move along the rails in the straight and pegged back the front-runner close home. The disappointment in the race was Crackle who seemed to be out of sorts.

Rutherford Alford’s Pick Pocket (Express Wish – Festive Season/ Mebajeona Stud) returned to his winning ways with a facile victory in the Gloriosa Cup. Following pace-setter Bongani till the top of the straight, Pick Pocket and Trevor took over the running and won as they liked. Though Copernicus lost some ground at the start, he ran on to occupy the runner-up berth.

Some years ago, Shroff had won the Monsoon Derby with Alice Springs. The 2000 metres race named after the filly saw the afternoon’s first upset as seven-year-old Su Chaliyo (Royal Kingdom-Bajo Grande/ Equus Stud) came good in the hands of apprentice Azharuddin.  The Karki-trained winner also saw the first of three apprentice mounts to win on this day. Chala Ja Bachha was very fractious at the gates and was withdrawn before coming under starters orders. Lantana Lady tried to make ends meet but was caught and passed by Su Chaliyo in the straight. Bottom-weight Almarada, who was a kg out of the scale, tried to catch up with the top-weight but failed narrowly.

Arti Doctor’s Primrose (Chevalier-So Shocking/ Ruia stud) continued to defy the handicapper as she notched up her fourth successive sprint in the hands of apprentice Nikhil Bhujbal. She used her inside draw to good effect and won the upper division of the Steal The Glory Cup start to finish.

The lower division went monsoon first-timer Seafarer’s way. The Burden Of Proof-Seagazer colt from Kunigal stud was superbly piloted by a confident Trevor Patel to land the spoils for trainer Manvendra Singh who was equally confident of the outcome, despite this being the colt’s first outing of the season. The ante-post favourite – Vijay Singh’s Clear Opportunity – may fare better on the winter track. With recently injured C. Alford astride, she ended up a poor bottled-up fourth while Iron Lady finished a flying second.

Yet another monsoon first-timer Analyst ( Sharp Attack – Sweet Pia Jamie/ Gee Stud) sprinted to glory in the Stoney Valley Cup. The HS Bath-trained filly made every post a winning one in  the hands of Afzal Khan while the ante-post favourite Temple Run failed to match strides and finished in the ruck.

Vijay Singh’s Ace Of Fire (Ace-Burning Fire/ Exhilaration Stud) got the Better of favourite Marilyn quite easily. Though penalised 6.5 kg for his last victory with the same apprentice Munna Alam, the penalty was effectively only 3 kg as Alam’s body-weight did not allow him to use his 4kg allowance on the last occasion.

Vijay completed a brace with Anbiorn (Multidimensional-Al Dente / Usha Stud) who wore down the front-running Kabini in the straight with some help from Shailesh Shinde’s whalebone. With that, the curtain came down on a successful afternoon of racing.