It was an afternoon of mixed fortunes for punters at the Calcutta racecourse as the seven-event card saw a sprinkling of favourites and quite a few outsiders as well. The feature event of the afternoon, The Monsoon Cup, has plenty of ‘heritage’ value. In the days before the running of The Monsoon Derby, The Monsoon Cup held the pride of place as the season’s piece de resistance. But alas, it has now been reduced to a somewhat lacklustre affair – and the poor field of four is proof of that. The field was virtually a repetition of the quartet for the Alternator Cup with Montezuma replacing Star Symphony – both also-rans in their respective events.

On this occasion, Bharath Singh-trained Malpensa (Hurricane State – Northern Frontier/ Hargobind Stud)  altered his modus operandi to land the spoils in the mile-and-quarter race. Montezuma and Aerator were permitted to exchange leads till the 600 marker where top-weight visiting rider S John decided enough was enough and took over the running with the grey. Shailesh Shinde atop the on-money public choice Artesia realised early that he was up against a tough customer and urged the Khaitan filly to issue a challenge at the top of the straight but the long-striding five-year-old was moving away from her under John’s stick. At the wire, it was  virtually reduced to a one-horse affair.

The afternoon started lucratively for followers of money but ended disastrously. A huge gamble on Christopher Gleich-trained Drummer’s Qualms (Ivory Touch-Alterezza/ Mare Haven Stud) with leap-year jockey Md Sameer astride materialised in the opener after Manvendra Singh’s Chinese Takeaway had threatened to pull it off. The latter, with Hindu Singh astride, was galloping fluently in the straight after wresting the lead from Ambika, but came to a standstill once challenged by the 3/1 favourite. Barring Sreeyantra, the rest of the field of ten appeared to be ‘happy spectators’ – no doubt, an end of season gift for the rider  who was perhaps having only his second or third ride of the season.

The Unleashed Cup was a keenly contested issue between front-running Wonder Like You and on-money favourite Magical Ability (Steinbeck-Magical Romance/Usha Stud). The latter, with Shailesh Shinde astride, powered past the pace-setter in the final furlong. The victory seems certain to ensure Shinde’s championship title as there are only two days to go. The Vijay Singh stable has been a little handicapped of late as their retained stable jockey C.Alford, is sidelined by injury.

The most facile winner of the afternoon was Patrick Quinn’s Barocci (Carnival Dancer- Empress Ann/ Dashmesh Stud) who carried top-weight to a 8-length triumph in the mile-and-quarter race for The Amazing Handicap. When jockey B Mahesh decided to turn on the heat at the top of the straight, there was just no stopping the colt who seems to thrive on some extra ground. Athletico and Fervent Quest vied for the runner-up berth with the former prevailing.

Apprentice Munna Alam has done pretty well for himself this season and his ride on the Vijay Singh-trained filly Jalapeno Pepper (Ikhtyar-Jalapeno/ Nanoli Stud) was proof of that. He urged the filly on the wide outside as the front-running Significant and Black Caviour were keenly contesting the issue. In a tight finish, the favourite prevailed.

Vikash Jaiswal-trained Passionate (Epicentre-Passion In The Pink/ AB Stud) was piloted to a hard-fought triumph in the Reliable Handicap by brother Vinay. Rather cleverly, they used stablemate Highly Explosive to throw the hot-favourite Head Hunter off his stride and it worked wonders. The five-year-old may have been stretched to recapture the lead and that was enough time for Jaiswal’s ward to get his act together with a little help from his sibling.

Bharath Singh-trained Hurricane Star was backed to the exclusion of all others in the last race of the afternoon – The Star Phoenix Handicap. It was a packed field of twelve runners but perhaps the presence of S John may have bolstered the punters’ confidence. John did position his mount well and made his move at the right time but was done in by stablemate Royal Scots (Mull Of Kintyre-New Europe/ Manjri Stud) who had crept down the scale and was hard-ridden by Vaibhav to land the spoils close home.