The Calcutta Oaks was run according to the script on Saturday with a minor modification provided by schooler Vijay Singh’s Fly Like The Wind. The latter was disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance subsequent to The Monsoon Derby but showed commendable resilience to issue a semblance of a challenge to the mighty Tiger Tops from Pesi Shroff’s yard who made every post a winning one in the hands of Zervan. This was the second graded race  won by the filly by Tiger Hill out of Cockayne and she is likely to get top billing for The Calcutta Derby to be run on the second Sunday of January where her chief rivals will be the Pune Derby and Calcutta 2000 Guineas winner Quasar, and local ‘rising star’ Acrider.

On a fairly fast track, Tiger Tops made her own running with Fly Like The Wind in tow.  She was given a breather after the 1000 marker. The pace-setter was then given a reminder after heads turned for home and she pulled away to win quite comfortably in the end, in smart timing, which was just over a second away from Southern Empire’s record set in 2007. The winning filly is sure to improve further before the Derby and will be quite a handful for the ‘boys’ in the pack. As for the runner-up, her performance was creditable and it is to seen whether the stable’s leading jockey Christopher Alford will opt for the filly or the colt Acrider on D-Day. Of the other two in the field, jockey Sandesh opined that Sunshine Girl does not seem to be a stayer while Aralyn burst her blood vessels.

One race earlier, in the RWITC Cup, Sandesh had powered  Bharath Singh-trained Santos to the colt’s third straight victory. The Burden Of Proof – Flamingo Fan (Kunigal Stud) chestnut  was available at lucrative odds of 5/2 as the lacklustre Adiella closed as the favourite. However, she is no longer the filly that she was as a three-year-old. Chasing the runaway Bullet and Wild Card till well into the straight, Santos simply ran away for an easy victory while the favourite plodded on to occupy the runner-up berth.

In yet another cup event,  The TN Banerjea  Cup,  there was a keen struggle between the two fancied runners – Resolution and Bath-trained Pedro (Declaration Of War – Aranka/ Lingwood  Stud) with the latter prevailing in the hands of Parmar. The filly Resolution has been performing pretty consistently but may have reached the end of tether. Nevertheless she has in store one more race in this class and possibly one more in the upper category. The Manvendra Singh ward is both forward and speedy.

The afternoon started with Sandesh getting an armchair ride atop Bharath Singh-trained Triumphus (Burden Of Proof-Arizza/ Kunigal Stud) whose facile victory in a 2000 metres race while shouldering top-weight could raise hopes of the connections for bigger things ahead. However, the experienced jockeys who have ridden the colt feel that he lacks the class – which is probably true, but stranger things have happened on the racetrack.

Manvendra Singh’s Midnight Magic (Gaswar-Minnie Mouse/ Lingwood Stud) took a level start on this occasion and put paid to the pretensions of the course favourite Dark Angel who was on a start-to-finish mission in the race for the Mauritius Belle Handicap. The disappointment in the race was Ivy while the ante-post favourite Almario was an also ran.

The third race, The Star Angel Handicap, saw a double-mishap. While the much-fancied Native Speaker dropped her rider Shailesh Shinde (who was subsequently placed under observation), the eventual winner Ego Ego Ego (Eljohar-Mama Mia/ Mukhteswar Stud)  from Vikash Jaiswal’s yard, collapsed and died after passing the winning post.

The curtain came down with Arti Doctor-trained Sole Power (China Visit-Silver Toy/ Usha Stud) defying his five kg penalty and producing an encore in The Romantic Eve Handicap, by staving off a fast-finishing Torino.