Displaying a wonderful turn of foot in the home stretch, Manvendra Singh-trained filly Interstellar (Top Class-Eternal Spirit/ Mukteshwar Stud) sent her rivals packing in the 1400m race for The Silverina Cup. The Bharath Singh-trained pair of  public choice Tweedle Dee and front-running Noverro were involved in a keen tussle for supremacy all the way down the straight, but their effort came to nought as the flashy grey filly streaked past them after lying a handy fourth for most part of the seven-furlong trip. The stable’s retained rider Hindu` Singh needed just one ‘reminder’ from his whalebone to keep her galloping to glory.

Tweedle Dee was 10.5 kg plus a short-neck verdict worse off against Interstellar from their clash last year in the Bahrain Cup where Tweedle Dee was heavily fancied to win. Though he has improved considerably, it was not enough to overturn 10.5kg plus a short-neck verdict. Regarding Drops of Jupiter’s poor show vis-a-vis Tweedle Dee, it must be noted that the former was heavily under Trevor’s whip while Tweedle Dee was cantering in their last meeting in the Rahamatulla Memorial Cup.  The one-and-half  length verdict was not a  true measure of Twedle Dee’s superiority.  Noverro was the sole genuine seasoned Class I sprinter and he ran his own race up front.

Trainer Vijay Singh and jockey Prashant Dhebe combined fruitfully to score a brace with Devotion and Jump And Run. Devotion (Top Class – Temple Bells/ Mukteshwar Stud) was well positioned by Dhebe while Footloose called the early shots in the race for the Winfree Handicap. The withdrawal of favourite Carpe Noctem no doubt helped her cause. The latter was extremely fractious at the gates. Once shown daylight, Devotion simply ran away with the race.

Dhebe had to really work overtime on his other winner Jump And Run (Tariq-Equidae/ Equus Stud) as he edged out piping hot favourite Mllenium Glory in a ding-dong battle down the straight.  Midnight Magic was a good third and needs to be followed.

The Silver Bear Plate saw Simon Templar (Burden Of Proof-Chilli Girl/ Kunigal Stud) win his maiden race quite easily in Dashrath’s hands.  The favourite Beatles Bible was a fair second. Another fancied runner Levante ended up in the ruck. She is a small made filly, and like Drops Of Jupiter she was ridden flat out by Trevor to finish second in her previous outing where both Beatle’s Bible and Tiberon finished close up.

The two races framed over 1800m more or less went according to script. While favourite Dixie Diamond (Sedgefield-Dixie Dahlin / Jai Govind Stud)  from Bath’s yard quite easily got the better of  Fab Bullet in the Desert Blaze Handicap, Hartnell  (Western Aristocrat-Mother’s Pride/  Yervada Stud) had to be ridden out by low-weight rider Ashhad Asbar ro land the spoils. The Rutherford Alford-trained filly was 1.5kg out of the scale but it made little difference to the result, though I dare say that the handicapper will take note of that before setting his new mark.

 There was ‘Magic In The Air’ for trainer Farley Rodrigues as he picked up his first winner of the monsoon meet. The six-year-old gelding by Tariq out of Absolutely Royal (Equus Stud) had to be ridden flat out by Christopher Alford to get the better of the favourite Panchovilla at the wire.