An amazing piece of daredevilry by saddle artist Trevor Patel resulted in a dramatic win for Manvendra Singh-trained Cohiba (Sligo Bay-Dancer’s Fan) in the mile race for the Abs Fabs Handicap. Choosing the shortest route after the turning for home, Trevor went hell for leather with a ‘come what may’ attitude and shouldered two ‘borers’ out of his path. First, with hardly 100 metres left, he baulked a ‘threat’ from front-running Scuderia and then did likewise when Torino and Sandesh came on to him in the final 50 metres. It was fine display of fearless horsemanship by Trevor. In this race, though the speedy Lanner Falcon closed as the even-money favourite, he was simply outclassed by the photo-finishing pair at the wire and ended dead last.

One race earlier, Trevor had enjoyed a far more relaxed and easier ride astride Bharath Singh-schooled Jamaican. The five-year-old son of Lucifer Sam out of Spanish Whisper (Sans Craintes Stud) was given a copybook ride by the Bangalore based rider as he raced in a handy second position till the distance post before making his move on the outside and getting the better of `front-running Jassi’s Star.

The Nationalistic Cup, a five-and-half furlong sprint, saw a keen tussle for supremacy between top-weights Pinball Wizard (Oath-Naughty Romance/ Pratap Stud) and the on-money public choice Climber. The latter was on a start-to-finish mission while C.Alford astride the ‘Wizard’ sat at his tail and engaged him in a head-to-head battle all the way down the straight before emerging victorious. The rest were never in it.

The day’s opener saw unfancied Adanna (Steinbeck-Divinity/ Usha Stud)  from Vijay Singh’s yard come good in the hands of Shailesh Shinde. Following Alicante till the straight, Adanna sailed clear in the straight to win as she liked.

Richard Alford-trained Comedian (Chinese Whisper-Princess Ruby/  Tohana Stud) has improved a lot and he showed it with quickfire acceleration to get the better of runaway leader Highly Explosive close home. In retrospect, an apprentice claiming an allowance may have been able to pull it off for the defeated Jaiswal ward who was quietly fancied.

There was break after the second race as Dandified was accorded a warm send-off by the local turfites. As a result, the rest of the day’s card were pushed back by a quarter of an hour.

Kaartiken was backed to the exclusion of all others in the Exclusive Virtue Plate but came a cropper when challenged by recent winner Sreeyantra  (Hammerstein-Nasreen/ Krishna Stud) from Deepak Karki’s yard who availed the services of able apprentice Munna Alam once again. The disappointment in the race was land Of Glory whose odds expanded to 8/1 and was ridden with a definite lack of interest by Islam. He nevertheless finished on a good runner-up from the rear of the field.

The curtain came down with Errol Bhungard’s  Isle Of Avalon winning at lucrative odds. The filly by Noverre out of Isle Of Mull (Sohna Stud) had drifted out alarmingly last time out and was piloted rather shrewdly on this occasion. Sandeep Rajput kept her covered up till the straight and then shot her through a gap along the rails to win as she liked.