Fancied runners by and large obliged at the Calcutta racecourse on Saturday. Barring Dino in the day’s fourth event and Cronos one race later, the winners were limited to the first and second favourites.

Trainer Robert Gowli’s Evesham (Tariq-Everybody Counts/Equus Stud) was second in demand to stablemate Deserving Visit in the race for The Calcutta Monsoon Sprint. Both the trainer and jockey Shailesh Shinde completed their winning treble of the day with Evesham. Their earlier winners were Fly With The Wind and Real Presence.

Macedonian came out of the gates like a scalded cat and hugged the rails immediately. Delhi challenger King Kong was right behind him. The trio of Deserving Visit, Astaire and Evesham followed the pace-setting duo almost together. The front-runners fizzled out after the turning for home and Shaliesh drove Evesham with a couple of cracks of his whip to win rather comfortably in the end. Gentle Knowledge made up some ground to be a decent runner-up.

Earlier Shailesh enjoyed an armchair ride astride 10-to-4-on public choice Real Presence (China Visit – Real Excellence/ Usha Stud) in the race for The Green Sari Cup. The recent failure as a favourite made mincemeat of her four mediocre rivals as she ran away from the field.

The afternoon commenced for Gowli-Shinde combo on a successful note as Fly With The Wind (Win Legend-Ice Point/ Dashmesh Stud) quite easily accounted for surprise package Fund Raiser in the straight. The sparingly raced speedy filly who was burning the track, could have a few more races in store for her. Apprentice Hindu Singh had the mortification of falling off Sreeputra near the half-way mark. After a Stewards Enquiry, the fall was considered accidental.

After his good second last time out and being penalised 2kg for that, Arti Doctor-trained Flourishing Move was installed as the favourite in The Picture Perfect Handicap. Nikhil had him racing behind the front-runners till the bend and then made a bee line for the winning post by opening up a gap of over five lengths. It caught the field by surprise and the race seemed to be in his pocket. However, as  on the previous occasion, he did start to shorten his strides in the final hundred metres and Dashrath on Cronos (Burden Of Proof – Chimerique/ Kunigal Stud) moved like a bolt from the blue  to grab the honours close home. It was even more impressive as the gelding was shouldering a massive 61.5kg on his back.

Arti Doctor and Nikhil nevertheless pocketed a fancied double with Ashikaara and Lucky Streak. The former, a five-year-old by Noverre out of Scarborough (Sohna Stud) virtually made very post of the mile race for the Smart Charmer Handicap a winning one. Torero ended up a none too impressive second while the other fancied runner Romantic Flow was outpaced.

Lucky Streak (Tariq- Silken Magic/Equus Stud) won a ‘No Whips Race’ in a close verdict from a poorly handled Masquenada Lyrics and the consistent ‘trier’ Casper The Ghost. The last named’s  start-to-finish effort came to nought close home.

Trainer Bath’s Dino (Declaration Of War-Ummagumma/Lingwood Stud) ran true to form but was available at 7/1 as money came on Adzukis and Scarborough Fair who occupied the minor placings. Shezad Khan atop the winner, took no chances and called the shots from the word ‘go’. The gelding was stretching out well in the straight and may win again.