It was a warm, sunny afternoon at the Calcutta racecourse on Wednesday and the curtain came down on a happy note for punters as the even-money favourite Meet The Legend obliged in the penultimate race. Most of the action prior to that saw the satchel bearers getting the stick.

The main event, The Select Cup, witnessed Macedonian take a good jump and try to take the shortest route home. However, Bharath Singh-trained Double Do (Ajaad-Paddington Green/ Sans Craintes Stud) soon joined him on the flank and the duo went neck-to-neck till the distance post where the latter pulled away under apprentice Nikhil’s stick. The other three runners were never in the fray.

Two horses were backed in the opening event. They were Secret Gloss and Birthday Boy. While the former ran with a ‘will to win’, the latter was as good as an ‘also ran’. Front-running Gonna Be A Rockstar was followed by Saddle Chief and the favourite Secret Gloss (Quest Star-Park Petard/Gee stud) before the latter took up the running in the straight and drew away. The Bath-trained six-year-old mare was ridden by top-weight jockey Mahesh.

Shafiq Khan’s Riverdown Empress did wonderfully well to overcome the 7kg penalty and produce an encore in The Celestial Gift Handicap. Chinese Pride was on a start-to-finish mission but her effort came to nought when Sameer Khan on the top-weight decided to turn on the heat. The fiver-year-old mare by Holy Roman Emperor out of Dan’s Delight displayed a great zest for racing as she sailed past the front-runner and won quite comfortably.

A big gamble on Manvendra Singh-trained Praise Her Gaze materialised as the youngster by Express Wish out of Foot Tapper/ Mebajeona Stud was handled with supreme confidence by apprentice Hindu Singh who is fast maturing into a reliable rider. This being the filly’s first run of her career, she was not hurried in any way and allowed to settle in fifth slot as much-fancied Zillionaire went on a start-to-finish mission. Urging his mount well into the straight, the apprentice finally had to stave off a strong challenge from Fankaar.

Perhaps the afternoon’s most logical winner was Phy Eau Liang (Rebuttal-Hunan/ Hazara Stud), considering the manner in which Simple Simon had won a day earlier. However, her margin of victory would have surely given her backers quite a jolt. The Daniel David-trained filly had got the better of Simple Simon a few days earlier. On this day, over an extended trip, Resolution was installed as the firm favourite and Trevor Patel rode her confidently up front. Though she was penalised 5.5kg for that win, effectively, it was 9.5 kg if one takes into consideration the 4kg apprentice allowance during her last win. Considering that she is a free front-runner, the weight did tell in the final furlong and there was nothing that Trevor could do about it. Apprentice Azharuddin on Phy Eau Liang was compelled to take the bend five wide and yet made up a lot of ground in the straight to go past the front-runners. However, the challenge came from unexpected quarters in the form of Gorgeous Girl and it could have been anybody’s race at the finish. Both apprentices were using the stick freely and the proverbial whisker separated the duo at the wire.

After several failed attempts earlier in the season, Meet The Legend ( Win Legend-Annakita/ Dashmesh Stud) finally came good in the hands of Shailesh Shinde. The Shyam Habbu-trained gelding was placed nicely in third position while No Politics please and Gallop To Glory ran ahead of him. When asked for an effort by Shailesh, he responded well and sailed past the duo to record a comfortable victory.

The last race of the season saw some money come on Ashiqui but the top-weight had no answer to the quickfire acceleration from Self Directed (Diffident-Self Appointed/Nanoli Stud) who was powerfully piloted by Shailesh along the rails to give champion trainer Vijay Singh his sole win of the afternoon.

BEST PERFORMERS OF MONSOON 2014

Champion Trainer : Vijay Singh

Champion Jockey: Shailesh Shinde

Leading Owner: Mr Deepak Khaitan

Champion Horse: Tiger Tops

Horse Of The Season: Almarada

Best Apprentice: Md Azharuddin

RCTC Tipsters Tally

Winner: Ei Samay (Times Of India vernacular daily)

Runner-up: Times Of India

RCTC Tipsters Cup

Winner: Ei Samay (Times Of India vernacular daily)

Runner-up: Racing Guide (Fonn & Co)