It was mixed fortunes for punters at RCTC as three on-money horses obliged in a card of seven races. While three unfancied winners saw turfites burn their fingers, a fairly large gamble on Vijay Singh-trained Splash Proof tilted the scales in their favour.

The betting for the main event, The Gumaan Cup,  was restricted to the pair of Speedy Gonsalves and Noverro but the surprise packet turned out to be front-running Aptness  who in fact was better placed at weights than Noverro from their earlier meeting. So was aged Bullet, but the latter’s handling left much to be desired. He was a bottled up fifth in a field of six runners. Jockey Alford was zig-zagging in the straight for an opening and when he did get it, it was a little too late. Apprentice Munna Alam did well to bring Aptness  (Steinbeck-Aptiana/ Usha Stud) with a second wind after Noverro and Dashrath had  threatened to pull it off close home.

Jockey Vinay Jaiswal has always been a decent rider and it was a wee bit surprising that he had not opened his account till date. However, On Wednesday, he was at his best when he piloted brother Vikash Jaiswal’s El Cid (Noverre-Darsiyma/ Sohna Stud) to a narrow victory over the hot favourite Waveafterwave in the race for The Amazing Handicap. Though the public choice appeared to have the measure of him near the distance post, Vinay kept using the stick on his mount till fifty metres from home and then rode him out hands and heels to land the spoils. The win appeared to give the lad a lot of confidence, for he got a chance ride on Arion in the last race of the day and he did not disappoint. He brought the Robert Gowli-trained five-year-old with a strong run in the straight to get the better of  front-running pair of Washington and Zacara.

The afternoon commenced on a happy note for railbirds as Rutherford Alford-trained Cacharel (Burden Of Proof-Chilandria/ Kunigal Stud) justified her favouritism and got the better of hard-ridden Kamchatka in the straight. Apprentice Akash Rajput has upped his confidence level after his recent successes and this stood him in good stead as he was not unduly unnerved when Kamchatka tried to make every post a winning one. He eventually pegged the front-runner back close home.

The race for the Anticipation Plate for maiden youngsters saw money pouring in on Splash Proof (Whatsthescript-Splash of Class) after Shy Belle opened as the ante-post favourite. Nikhil on the latter seemed in a great hurry to hug the rails and squeezed everyone on his inside. Timeless Magic with Surjeet Singh on her outside was the culprit and Surjeet was fined Rs 15,000/- for dangerous riding . Fortunately, there was no serious accident. It was however the friendless Timeless Magic from the Rodrigues stable who ran a great race and threatened to pull it off before John got cracking on the favourite and steered the colt home under the whip.

Top-weight Ballister (Chevalier-Ballibay/ Ruia Stud) won the 1800 metres race for the Jango Handicap extremely impressively and looks to be a Derby candidate after this race. Top Cat, another Rodrigues runner ended up a fair second.

The hottest favourite of the afternoon, Stevalena (Multidimensional-Veena’s Pert/ Usha Stud) did not disappoint her backers as she won quite comfortably in the hands of Christopher Alford despite being taken wide by Serjeant Major.