It was one of the scrappiest Colts Trial Stakes in recent history with three jockeys fined a sum of Rs 10,000 each and champion saddle artist Christopher Alford getting off lightly with a reprimand. It would be fair to say that the entire chaos in the ten-horse field was kick-started by Ashhad Asbar who went on a diagonal route with Theo immediately after jumping out from the gates. He was rightly fined Rs 10,000/-. But the other fines of the same amount imposed on Kamlesh (Multivalue) and Arshad Alam (Running Hand) seems rather harsh. Kamlesh had to shift his mount out slightly to avoid running into the heels of front-running Ascend and thereby come into brief contact with Cadman which did not alter the course of the race in any way. However, Christopher Alford squeezing out Kamlesh from the race seems entirely intentional and it had a disastrous effect on Multivalue as Running Hand moved inwards at the same time. Multivalue immediately dropped back to the last position. The two fancied outstation challengers Kingoftheworld and Summer Hill faced immense traffic problems after Asbar’s antics on Theo and decided to ‘hold their horses’ for another day (pun intended).

Once in the straight, Christopher Alford rode out  Bharath Singh-trained Tweedle Dee (Juniper-Linette/ Capricorn Stud) in his inimitable attractive manner to sail past the front-runners and post a no-holds-barred win. The victory salute while passing the winning post said it all! While Alford’s immense will-to-win must be appreciated, his modus operandi may at times leave ‘gentleman riders’ exasperated and frustrated.

Kamlesh was the sufferer of ‘reckless riding’ (possibly intentional) once again when another champion jockey S John took a leaf out of Alford’s book and knocked the former’s mount Silken Grace out of the race for The Helping Hand Handicap. Whether the filly would have won otherwise is another matter altogether. James Mc Keown-trained Aaron’s (Win Legend-Aracruz/ Dashmesh Stud) made it a start-to-finish affair after John cut in sharply from an outside draw. He too got away with a reprimand.

The Artesia Cup turned out to be a bit of a ‘farcical’ race as the two Vijay Singh runners Evesham (Tariq-Everybody Counts/ Equus Stud) and Mr Gorgeous battled it out in a four-horse field. After his earlier debacle, Evesham found his galloping shoes in the straight at nourishing odds of 5/2 while his stablemate Mr Gorgeous was the 10-to-7-on favourite. The sprinter however won fair and square. Unwary punters burnt their fingers once again. Those who stayed away were  undoubtedly the gainers.

The day’s biggest gainer other than the Bharath Singh stable  was trainer Vikash Jaiswal, who notched up a lucrative double with Rio and the aged Monsieur Strauss in the two divisions of the Defence Forces Cup. The upper division saw Rio (Multidimensional-Olivia Valerie/ Usha Stud) come good in the hands of Md Azharuddin. Of the two fancied runners, Cocoanut and Astral Dancer, the former was the better but took the turn miles wide and lost all his chances. There was another Rs 10,000  fine in this race – that of Sk Zafar Riaz atop Fibonacci Sequence.

Jaiswal completed his brace by picking up the lower division of the same race with Monsieur Strauss (Mull Of Kintyre-Mademoiselle/ Sohna Stud). Apprentice Akash Rajput did well to allow Regal to show the way by keeping his speedy mount in check. In the straight, he let the seven-year-old go in full throttle and that did the trick. Kanya Kalyan made a bold bid along the rails but fell short though his  winning penalty was only 3kg.

The afternoon commenced on a bright note for followers of money as the Shafiq Khan stable landed a good gamble with Bang Bang (Stardan-Ballad Of Glory/ Roli Stud) who collared front-running Strike It Lucky quite easily. Punters then got quite a jolt when Arti Doctor-trained Mr Fogg’s (Phoenix Tower-Soul Sister/ Manjri Stud) with Suraj Narredu in the saddle won by the narrowest of margins fast finishing Auxilium. Adzukis (Arazan-Aemilia) was another public choice which obliged in the hands of C.Alford.  The Vijay Singh runner pocketed the Unknown Warrior Cup without much ado. Pace-setter Scarlet Emperor folded up when challenged by the eventual winner, while Celtic King was the best of the rest.