Heat. Humidity. High taxes. Nothing could stop the die-hard Mahalaxmi fans from enjoying Sunday's nine-race card as they thronged in good numbers to witness the last day's action at what is easily the most spectacular racetrack in the country. If this game really manages to survive in western India despite the problems it is besieged with, at the end of the day you may have to give credit to the never-say-die spirit of the Mumbai race-goer. Thankfully, the card that brought the curtain down on the 42-day long Mumbai season lived up to its promise, as five of the nine races were decided by a verdict of half a length or less.

Even the first race on the card with three horses in the gates, and only two of them taking a level jump, resulted in a photo-finish. The Tristar Plate for class III horses over nine furlongs almost became a match race between White Knight and Fire Vault as favourite Snow Queen stayed immobile inside the gates after the flag came down. But the two-horse contest soon turned into a battle of saddle skill between B Prakash (White Knight) and Imran Chisty (Fire Vault), the top two in the jockeys' tally, and the result made clear why B Prakash is sitting at the top of the table, although Imran Chisty was no less impressive in his effort when losing by a head.

Prakash also picked up the feature event of the day, the Racing Officials Trophy, when he drove Forever Young, owned by the Jains and Patels, to a splendid victory. Hitting the front soon after jumping out, the ace jockey set a leisurely pace, cutting the first two furlongs in 26.85 seconds. He cleverly, and very suddenly too, stepped up pace immediately on straightening up, covering the next two furlongs in under 22.5 seconds. Estevez's effort to make up the three-length gap and draw level in the same time proved to be suicidal, and perhaps due to muscular fatigue, the hot public choice had to completely drop out of contention to finish fifth.

Generalissimo (Nitin Singh up) who was always on the haunches of Forever Young created a flutter by renewing his challenge in the final furlong after a quick breather, but Prakash had no difficulty to hold him by a neck at the wire. Earlier in the day, two trainers with small strings--Sangramsinh Joshi and Nirad Karanjawalla--had led in a winner each, toppling the applecart of favourites in both instances.

Nirad Karanjawalla and his supporters, perhaps sensing that all was not too well with the Imtiaz Sait-trained favourite Starrer (YS Srinath up), backed Pure Power with confidence, and the Hypatia filly who was still a maiden after half a dozen starts finally landed the spoils in the hands of Neeraj Rawal who managed to get a neck verdict against Starrer. In the next race, Sangramsinh Joshi sent out Kimaya who posted a thrilling victory in the hands of jockey Dasrath Singh, coming with a powerful stretch run to shock Suavemente (B Prakash up), who was already hard-pressed to hold off a menacing Gatravat (CS Jodha up).

There was some inspired support in this race for Tyumen, but one could never know if it was justified as she was very badly knocked off by Arbudh who was forced to do so thanks to some reckless piece of riding by Vikram Jodha astride Shodaan. The last-named rightly earned disqualification for this act. However the jockey perhaps got off lightly when he was asked to sit out only for a week. Trainer Faisal Abbas, whose Tyumen was thus knocked out of contention, however did not have to wait for long as C Rajendra astride his Secret Magic humbled B Prakash and Mohabbi in the very next race, the A Hoyt Plate.

Jockey Dasrath Singh was the only other rider besides B Prakash to score a brace on the card. After scoring with Kimaya, he had it relatively easy on Tease Me (formerly Gypsy Queen) who swept all her rivals off their feet when she outpaced them to give trainer Damodaran Pillai his second victory of the week in the lower division of the Prive Equine Racing Excellence Trophy. The upper division of the same race was won most impressively by Wadhawan Livestock's Sea Diamond who gave an armchair ride to apprentice P Trevor, justifying the thumping support that came her way which saw her odds getting hammered in the ring from 2-1 to 11-10 within a matter of minutes.

Sea Diamond was the fifth winner over the weekend saddled by trainer Hormuz Antia, who also picked up the next race, the lower division of the Trainers Trophy with Always Smile, on whom Imran Chisty donned Vishal Shah's silks after B Prakash declared his unavailability. Trainer Faisal Abbas won the upper division of the Trainers Trophy with Hammerhead who got a spirited ride from apprentice M A Roushan in the concluding race of the season. Surprisingly, the last-outing conqueror of Sea Diamond (the most impressive winner on Sunday) ran almost friendless, and was freely available at 15-1 in the bookies' ring.

Jacqueline's ownership primarily enabled Mr and Mrs Vijay Shirke, KN Dhunjibhoy and Bergis M Desai to bag the leading owner's prize for the season, while her trainer Pesi Shroff, who created a record by saddling 61 winners, emerged as the champion trainer. B Prakash, who broke free from the Ramaswamy yard during the season, celebrated his shift to his home turf by winning the jockeys championship, riding 37 winners, while young Trevor Patel bagged the leading apprentice jockey award with ten winners against his name. Among breeders, the Poonawalla stud farm reigned supreme with 195 points.