An amazing turn-of-foot by Javed Khan-trained 8/1 shot Aerona (Chevalier – So Shocking/ Ruia Stud) left Glamorously and Waveafterwave stranded in the final furlong as they had no answer to the ‘shooting star phenomenon’. The connections thus pocketed a winner’s purse of over Rs 20 lakh as their ward lifted the first classic of the monsoon season – The Calcutta Fillies Trial Stakes run over seven furlongs. Jockey Shailesh Shinde did everything right on this occasion. The filly jumped out from the 11^th draw and gradually improved her position while outstation challenger and on-money public choice Stateira set a cracking pace. Christopher Alford and Glamorously were the first to challenge the pace-setter while Wavaafterwave was a well-placed third. Glamorously looked headed for the winning post after the distance marker with Waveafterwave looking threatening all the time. Thereafter, it was all over in a blink of an eye as Shinde turned on the heat and Aerona sailed past the front-runners.

It should be mentioned here that it was a warm and humid afternoon at the Calcutta racecourse and the final entrant and hot favourite Stateira hardly had five days to acclimatise to the local conditions, after travelling all the way from the far more pleasant clime of Pune. The inexperienced filly nevertheless put in a heart-warming show to finish fourth and will be worth keeping an eye on in the future. Her fourth place may have turned out be a blessing in disguise as she has incurred a penalty of mere 2kg whereas runner-up Glamorously attracted a 6.5kg hike which puts her more or less at the bottom of Class II.

The disappointment in the race was the run of the speedster Suzanna who seemed all at sea after failing to take the front. She was virtually running in reverse gear in the first half of the race despite Dashrath Singh’s best efforts to keep up with the pace. The authorities have requested the vet to check her up.

Javed Khan’s first winner of the afternoon was five-year-old Copernicus (Mathematician-Historians Beauty/ Sans Craintes Stud) who had been knocking for some time. Despite losing some ground at the start, jockey Shezad Khan rather cleverly allowed him to settle down till the top of the straight, before urging him and forging a passage down the middle to win as he liked. He was available at 7/2.

Jockey Christopher Alford did not disappoint his many followers as he guided Fly Like The Wind (Win Legend – Ice Point/ Dashmesh Stud) to a pillar-to-post victory in the race for The Smart Ruler Cup. Though she was the totalisator favourite, she was available at 9/4 in the ring as stablemate Aptness opened at 16/10.

Rutherforld Alford’s stable pulled off a good gamble with Amazing Maria (Gaswar-Xiamen/ Lingwood Stud) in the opening race of the day. Stablemate Pocket Queens was the ante-post favourite but it was leap-year jockey Sk Israil who ultimately carried the public purse to victory after collaring front-running Alicante who continues to consistently earn her oats even at the ripe old age of seven.

Yet another gamble materialised in the very next race as an elated rookie trainer Raunak Banerji led in his first winner of the season. The winning filly Raw Silk ( New Famous – Silken Magic/ Yeravada Studs) was given a competent ride by Zervan who tackled the swerving Eternal Instinct rather well. However it all ended well for the new trainer.

A brilliant piece of horsemanship by top-weight rider Sandeep Rajput saw Vikash Jaiswal-trained Secret Builder ( Arabian Gulf-Sanskara/ Manjri Stud) bring the curtain down in dramatic fashion. The favourite Sam Houston ran a poor race while stablemate Athletico and Ambrose were right there at the busy end.