Run on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, The Calcutta Derby Stakes was witnessed by a large vociferous crowd of over 18,000. Available at 65/100, piping hot favourite Desert God (Burden Of Proof-Running Flame/ Kunigal Stud) delivered the goods when most needed in the hands of British jockey David Allan.

In his post-race comments, trainer Padmanabhan said that “David has struck up a fine understanding with the colt and their next target is the Indian Derby in February. The colt is improving with each run.”  For his part, Allan stated that “He settled well after some early jostling and accelerated brilliantly when asked for an effort”. He however confirmed without any hesitation that “In The Spotlight (on whom he had won the Calcutta Derby couple of years back) was a far superior animal.” For owner Sharmila Padmanabhan, it was a highly emotional moment as she recalled her mother’s prophecy that ‘one day you will surely win the Calcutta Derby’.

The mile-and-half Grade I affair was run pretty much according to script with Fly With The Wind setting a cracking pace, followed by Multitude, Romantic Magic, Desert God and Setaflame. It was near the 600marker that Multitude took up the running and tried his utmost to give the field the slip. But Allan is no stranger to the local track and was at his tail in a jiffy. Both Romantic Magic (along the rails) and Setaflame (on the outside) were moving well behind the front pair but found the duo out of their reach. There is no denying the fact that Allan had to use the stick on his mount and the colt did hang in under pressure. This suggests that Vijay Singh-trained Multitude (who stayed the Derby trip rather well) will be a force to reckon with in the future. Setaflame moved up under Chouhan’s whip and finished close up with his owner-mate.

While followers of money were disappointed in the early part of the day, it was in fact form horses that were ruling. The supporting event, The Hyderabad Race Club Cup, saw Vijay Singh-trained Aptness (Steinbeck-Aptiana/ Usha Stud) come with a second wind under apprentice Alam to edge out stablemate Glamorously at the wire. The front-running winner was entered straight after a 2200metres where his fast pace had led to a record timing for his stablemate Falcon. Moreover, the favourite Glamorously is probably a little more comfortable over seven furlongs. While Copernicus ran a superb third, the disappointment in the race was Cohiba who was seen to struggle.

Two races later, an incredible piece of horsemanship from a most unlikely source saw Daniel David-trained Earnest Ruler (Rebuttal-Farha/Hazara Stud) land the spoils in the mile race for the Religare Private Wealth Cup. Apprentice Azharuddin thus notched up only his second win of the season. Just when it seemed that favourite Ximore might do the trick, Azharuddin extricated his mount from along the rails and shot him through a gap to spare over two lengths at the wire. The apprentice thus made ample amends for his horrendous ride on the same horse which saw him lose a certain race with Fly With The Wind a month earlier.

The Chianti Cup, run over 2000 metres, saw favourite Real Presence lose out in a close finish to James Mckeown’s Legendofthephoenix (David Allan up). It was Allan’s clever piece of horsemanship which saw C.Alford bite the dust on the public choice despite his best efforts. Allan switched his mount to the inside in the straight and the mare by Win Legend out of Fairytaleending (Dashmesh Stud) picked up a late gallop under the stick to edge past Real Presence.

Manvendra Singh-trained Interstellar (Top Class – Eternal Spirit/ Mukhteshwar Stud) showed that she is only next to Xotica when it comes to sprinting ability. The speedster made every post of the Alokananda Stakes a winning one in the hands of S.John.

Make Way For Me (Mizzen Mast – My Melody) from Javed Khan’s yard defied the 4.5kg penalty for his last win to get the better of Noverro and Speedy Gonsalves quite easily in the race for the Romantic Memories Cup. Having won earlier in the day’s opener atop Ascend,  jockey Sandesh thus completed a double despite his mount drifting out in the straight. It was in fact the top-weight Sushi who ran a good race to occupy the runner-up berth.

Rather ironically, it was the friendless Miraculix (Kingda Ka-Esoteric/ Nanoli Stud) who brought the curtain down by lifting the 91.9 Friends FM Cup. The Manvendra Singh ward was taken to the helm of affairs by apprentice Hindu Singh as the gates opened and quite easily staved off the fancied pair of Claymore and Roman Flame.