Lethal Steps (Phoenix Tower – Scionic, Manjri Stud) finally came good and notched up her maiden victory, winning the Fourth Estate Trophy, the feature event of the day in style. Jockey P Trevor kept the Dallas Todywalla trainee right up in front alongside Fire Flame with Articulate and Baymax following close behind.  

Once they turned for home, Lethal Steps got aggressive and within strides got away from Fire Flame and the rest building up a sizable lead coming into the straight. She looked the winner long way from home, with Trevor affording a peep over his shoulder as they coasted to a very comfortable victory looking good all the way. First timer Articulate did well on his educative run to end second and he is bound to improve. Arrowfield took a fly jump at the gates and lost considerable ground at the start, yet managed to beat the rest comfortably while taking the third spot. 

Trevor had earlier partnered veteran trainer Bezan Chenoy’s Forest Fairy (Arazan – Forest Fantasy, Poonawalla Stud) to a facile win. Sitting in third in a closely huddled bunch headed by Odessa and Carbonara, Forest Fairy was on tight reins throughout and Trevor was quick to take the narrow path along the rails as Odessa shifted out slightly entering the homestretch. Unlike Forest Fairy, Texas Gold and Turning point had to skirt around the field to make their bid. Texas Gold made good progress coming into the straight and it looked Forest Fairy had to counter a challenge. However, the filly picked up speed and was soon rushing ahead stretching out fluently and was no match for Texas Gold who watched her skip away and out of reach. Forest Fairy won well and by a margin! Texas Gold ended runner up while Turning Point ended a tame third. 

Pathan (Rebuttal – Poor Old Eliza, Hazara Stud) showed top form and depth in stamina while working up his own pace and landing a top class start to finish victory without encountering any challenge. He galloped workman-like all the way into the straight and then accelerated smoothly to stay clearly ahead all the way to the winning post. PS Chouhan guided the Waheed trained gelding astutely to ensure a very easy victory, Pathan second on the trot. Cavarozzi fought off Lucky Luciano for the second slot. 

Flammeus (Western Aristocrat – Aristeia, Nanoli Stud) was another won that pulled off an easy win looking good all the way into the straight. The filly, trained by Hosidar Daji led them into the straight hard held in the hands of apprentice K Nazil. The lad had to do very little as Flammeus galloped powerfully picking up speed showing a good turn of foot to draw away from Royston Rock to score her maiden victory with a much improved show than her previous efforts. Flammeus looked good enough to expect her to notch-up another in her next outing. Royston Rock ended second while Bay of Love improved positions and did well to save place money. 

Nextstar (Stern Opinion – Langkawi, Pratap Stud) scored a close one with Adele calosing in on her in the final moments of the race. She took off at a good clip and led them into the straight. Nextstar had Malavika close on her heels all the way with the rest not too far behind, favourite Between The Waters, in fourth or fifth. 

Nextstar darted ahead soon on turning for home, with Malavika not being able to catch up. Adele made a good forward move while Between The Waters was trying to work up some speed on the outside, without much success. Nextstar, with PS Chouhan in the saddle was hard at work to keep her lead as Adele was inching closer and posing a serious threat. Eventually the winning post came to her rescue and Nextstar just managed to cling on to the lead to win by a narrow margin. Adele was the game challenger and another stride or two, the race was hers. Malavika easily held Between The Waters to take the third place.

Hormuz Antia Trained Romantic Warrior (China Visit – Romantic Liaison, Usha Stud) should consider himself lucky to win the concluding race of the day as the runner up had to veer out early in the race as Buddyholly dislodged the rider right in front of Highland Lass and jockey Neeraj Rawal had to steer out of harms way thus losing considerable ground at that juncture, losing rhythm and picking up again to recover lost ground all in split seconds. Highland lass managed to narrow it all down to half length at the wire. Romantic Warrior on his part galloped gamely in the straight and held True Grit and the others at bay with ease. Highland Lass had to manoeuvre her way between horses and mount her challenge. She did raise hopes at one point, but just had too much to do in the short Pune straight. She should make amends the next time.

For the professionals, jockeys Trevor and PS Chouhan scored a double each.