Young trainer Rutherford Alford continues to be rewarded for the hard work he is putting in to maintain his wards in top-drawer condition. On Saturday, his three-year-old bay gelding Home Of The Brave (Samidd-Roof Fiddle) mauled the opposition in the race for the Grand Annual Mile. Once into the straight, the mount of Hindu Singh simply left the field cold while Accidental and Shivansh fought for the minor placings. The last named drifted to the outer rails, other than which he would have been nearer at the finish.

As Trevor Patel and PS Chouhan were absent, there were a string of substitutions. To make matters worse, Dashrath suffered a fall from Noverro in the fourth race after clipping the heels of the filly Sangfroid who was bleeding badly as a result and finished fifth.  The connections have retired her to stud. The race for the Bangalore Turf Club Cup was won start-to-finish by Denny Crane (Arazan- Blue Horizon/ Poona Stud). It was a bold gamble by the Vikash Jaiswal stable with win-less apprentice Sujit Paswan astride.

Jockey S John set the ball rolling for himself when he rode a regulation race astride Vikash Jaiswal-trained Shanaya’s Pet in The Sunbird Handicap.. Following front-running Mustang till the straight,  the six-year-old mare by Varenaar out of Generous Grey streaked ahead and won comfortably. John rode a similar race atop Everglow (Top Class – Eternity/ Mukteshwar Stud). Following Regal till the straight, the filly who was having her sixth outing of the season finally made it to the winner’s enclosure.

John brought the curtain down to the day’s proceedings with a start-to-finish victory astride James McKeown’s Claymore.  The six-year-old gelding by Dark Angel out of Gavotte thus made it a back-to-back double. Beatles Bible (Neeraj Rawal up) made a strong bid for honours but failed to collar the front-runner in this ‘No Whips’ race.

Earlier James Mc Keown had led in Shivalik Showers with B Mahesh astride. In the absence of Trevor, the top-weight rider utilised this chance mount to the hilt although he had to crack the whip as many as eight times to keep Cadman at bay. After the withdrawal of the unruly stablemate Ophion, Shivalik Showers  (Dancing Forever- Sun Shower/ Hazara Stud) made every post a winning one.

Javed Khan-trained chestnut colt Gloaming (Ravel-Flair Queen) completed a well-deserved hat-trick when Neeraj Rawal guided him to a fairly comfortable victory in the race for The Obligado Handicap. Following Arminius till into the straight, Gloaming shot ahead and did not face much opposition in his quest for victory.