The high-five with trainer Vikash Jaiswal after completing his hat-trick of wins on Wednesday said it all. The very apprentice who was without a win till mid-way through the season, is now well on the way to securing the ‘best apprentice award’, and he has trainer Vikash Jaiswal to thank for that. The schooler persisted with the lad even after a string of failures. After he opened his account with a brace over a month ago, there has been no looking back and Akash Rajput’s confidence level has been soaring high – culminating with a fabulous hat-trick on this day.  What is even more encouraging is the fact that in all three cases, the on-money public choices were being ridden by reputed jockeys. After his recent successes, the apprentice has been securing rides outside his stable as well and it was one such ride in the stable of HS Bath that started the ball rolling for the youngster.

Mustang (S John up) was considered a mere formality in the Marinsky Plate while second favourite Arabian Sky was the threat if any. However, what transpired was a little different as Roman Ridges (Holy Roman Emperor-Blue Ridges) switched course mid-way down the straight in the hands of Rajput and pegged back the runaway Mustang close home. Arabian Sky moved well towards the end but fell short and will be worth following.

Vikash Jaiswal’s Jorell (Varenar-Eubee)  was next on Rajput’s list of winners. Coming in from an outside draw, he nursed his mount till the final furlong while C. Alford atop Cool Hunter tried runaway tactics. Thereafter, it was all Jorell. Rajput completed his hat-trick astride Knighthood (Arazan-Dementieva) who lost some ground at the start and yet got the better of runaway Mister Majestic in the final stride. It was a grandstand finish befitting of his achievement.

The dull feature event of the afternoon, The Alternator Cup, saw the half-money favourite Multitude (Multidimensional-Haedi/ Usha Stud) come good with S John in the saddle. Following stablemate Falcon till the straight, Multitude galloped strongly to overhaul the pace-setter and win easier than the verdict of half-length. Talented Mr Gorgeous ran his fourth race of the season (possibly to make up the numbers and stop this race from being declared void) and deserves a little holiday to get back his breath.

Trainer Vijay Singh completed a treble by picking up the last two races of the day. Apercus (Chevalier-Arnatta/) was handled with great expertise by none other than Christopher Alford and win at nourishing odds of 6/1. Praise Her Gaze was a creditable runner-up and deserves to be followed as she may go one better in her next essay.

Vijay’s Fabienne (Dancing Forever-Noorain) won the last race of the day with a degree of comfort in the hands of S John while top-weight Bubbly Bellini was the best of the rest. Trainer Bharath Singh was a spectator during most of the day but had tasted success of a rather surprising sort when his troubled filly Breach Candy (Win Legend-Integral/ Dashmesh Stud) won the opening event which was a mile race. Apprentice Hindu Singh put a lot of pressure on the filly in the final furlong to get the better of the fancied pair of Romantic Society and Artegal close home.