It was inevitable. About 40 days of quality racing--good horses and well-filled fields--finally had to make way for the season's most unattractive racing card on Friday when only 36 runners showed up in a six-race card. The fact that it was the first three-day racing at a stretch, and slated at the fag end of the season, only made things worse. Luckily, however, for the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) Limited, it did not turn out to be as dispirited as it looked on paper, thanks mainly to some close finishes and competitive racing on the racetrack which saw two of the six races requiring the photo-finish camera to separate the winner from the loser.

The card opened with the Lumiere Plate for four year-old class IV horses, and so much money came in for the Faisal Abbas-trained Gamba (C Rajendra up) that the odds on the ante post on-money favourite Deep Purple shot up to 12 to 10 at post time. It is another matter that Deep Purple ridden by Srinath won like a money-back proposition, putting six long lengths between himself and runner-up Splendid Secret ridden by Imran Chisty. Gamba turned out to be a humiliating failure for those who backed her, finishing nearly ten lengths further behind. In the very next race, the Diamond Valley Plate for class IV horses, two five-kg claimer apprentice riders pitted their talent and energies against each other to make the contest engaging.

Both Adam's Law and Strong Foundation were fancied sweetly by their respective connections despite rookies in the saddle, the former enjoying a little more support than the latter to emerge as the tote favourite. The break from the gates went in favour of Adam's Law who was out in a jiffy and hit the front, while Strong Foundation popped out awkwardly from the gates and lost a couple of lengths before Sandesh steadied her, and improved gradually to stalk the leader before negotiating the turn around the 600-metre marker.

But Kavraj Singh astride the favourite pushed the mare to break away in the straight, and this lead looked like coming in good until the last 50 metres, when the unperturbed, persistent--and almost copybook--effort of Sandesh paid off, in the end posting what looked like quite a comfortable victory for the Ivor Fernandes-trained four year-old filly that carried the silks of Niraj and PM Rungta. The Bangalore Turf Club Trophy, Friday's feature, turned out to be a showcase event for the Vinayak-trained Spirituall who humbled his four rivals when clocking a smart time of 1 minute 10.45 seconds.

Spirituall, who was quoted at 5 to 4 in the bookmakers' ring, thus justified his odds, while Agha, next in demand at 9 to 2, ran a dismal race to finish last. Three-and-a-half lengths behind the winner, the second place was taken up by the Hormuz Antia-trained Schnell (SP Ranjane up) who beat the more fancied Romantic Impact (Dasrath Singh up) by a neck. In the lower division of the Roman Way Plate for 5-year and older horses in bottom class, Final Attack with Amyn Merchant in saddle was backed almost to the exclusion of all his rivals, commanding a clear favouritism at 7-4, while all others went to the post over 6-1, except Roses All The Way (Dasrath Singh up) who managed some respect at 5-1. However, the heavily bet favourite found himself grounded when the gates opened, and nosed out of the gates after nearly a second-and-a-half, costing a lost ground of nearly 8-10 lengths.

And although to Amyn Merchant's credit it must be said that he gradually brought him up to be fourth before the turn and looked like taking a striking position, the favourite was a spent force long way from home. Friendless True Elegance who raced third on the rails all the way was cleverly asked by S Sunil to exploit the gap on the rails as heads turned for home, and the six year-old mare, trained by Damodaran Pillai, fought a grim battle with leader Roses All The Way on whom Dasrath Singh rode like one possessed, but only to finish runner-up after leading all the way.

The horse for your notebook, however, is Golden Orra who got a pathetic ride but still managed to finish third. A good jockey cannot be put down for long, and Dasrath Singh, perhaps smarting under the defeat in the earlier race, put his heart into riding the Todywalla-trained Wild Torronaado who managed to tame the raging hot favourite Bluemarine in the Bold Anne Plate. Quick to jump out, Dasrath Singh hit the front with Wild Torronaado while the even-money favourite Bluemarine jumped out a little awkwardly and had to race three wide all along, in fourth, behind Wild Torronaado, Elementto Angel and Snow Blind. Neeraj Rawal astride the favourite put tremendous pressure on his mount to overtake Wild Torronaado, but that was no match to Dasrath Singh's determined show on the winner.

The last race on the card, the upper division of the Roman Way Plate, was won by Saqib Shaikh-trained Born Destiny on whom apprentice S Zervan posted an authoritative victory of four-and-a-half lengths. Up North, who was forced into favouritism as not many horses were backed strongly, managed to finish second ahead of The Right Man and Chopasni.