Thunder showers lashed the city minutes after the last event on Saturday and had the rain come earlier punters would have saved some money taking into account that not a single favourite came home first in the seven-event card.

The second in demand at the betting ring, Mauritania from S Padmanabhan’s yard powerfully piloted by Scottish pro David Allan nailed the top fancy Tutankhamun at the shadow of the winning post in the D P Sharma Memorial Sprinters Trial Stakes. The public choice who had beaten Mauritania comfortably over a seven furlongs trip in their last head-to-head clash again attempted a pillar to post win, but lost out on the final stride. Star Carnation finished third ahead of Siobhan.

The principal added attraction, the F K IKrani Memolrial Trophy looked very open and hence winner picking here was tricky. The Prasanna Kumar schooled Areca Legend partnered by Imran Chisty garnered the maximum support and Winning Heart too from Parvati Byramji’s yard had his fair share of followers. The Sulaiman Attaollahi-trained Sakura, who had the best credentials was ignored on the sole count that the grey filly had failed to display her true potential earlier in the season and finished down the field in the Oaks, finding the gruelling 2400 metres trip beyond her compass. But the Sulaiman ward decided to put her best stride forward as ominous clouds started to gather in the sky and the moment she did that, the in-form Akshay Kumar put her on top gear and Sakura stormed through to score from Poseidon and Winning Heart. The favourite Areca Legend much to the disappointment of his supporters failed to make the frame and this is largely due to the fact that his pilot Imran Chisty injudiciously chose to chase the nohoper Alpha for most part of the seven furlongs trip. Even before he headed the field briefly at the distance post it was clear Areca Legend was running out of gas and at the end the Prasanna ward was seen plodding, failing to even make the frame.

After leading in two well backed favourites which helped a majority of punters recoup their losses on Friday, Prithviraj dropped a bombshell, the friendless Limato from his yard coming up tops in the Royal Russian Plate run over a distance of seven furlongs. The lesser fancied Hafnium gained the runner-up berth ahead of Incitatus while the well backed Colour Of Gold from Sharath Kumar’s yard who had made a favourable impression in his two earlier essays was never in the hunt.

Summer Dawn was another from this stable who failed to carry the public purse to victory. Backed to the exclusion of his 11 rivals, Summer Dawn at no stage of the race was in contention for top honours before finishing in the ruck;. The second in demand at the betting ring, Amazing Skill from Satish Narredu’s yard won the Planetarium Plate run over a mile from Extremelydangerous while Bazinga after doing all the running in front hung on to take the third spot ahead of Love Is Life.

Yash and Satish earlier combined effectively to strike it rich on Tarini, who pegged back the determined effort of Call Me Maybe to come up trumps in the Amazing Grey Plate to run over a sprint. Ispelldangertoall who was strongly fancied to place managed to do that nosing out Silken Striker.

The opening event the lower division of the Somnathpur Plate saw the five to one shot Island Pearl making every post a winning one in the hands of apprentice jockey Raghu.  Here too the public choice Country’s Pearl finished out of board. Nayaab gained the runner-up berth ahead of Aqua Blesssing, who in the final furlong looked good to score before slowing down only to save place money.

The Irfan Ghatala-trained Savisa was one horse who the punters chose to pin their hopes in the upper division of the event. The favourite was offered at 11/10 while the rest were quoted at (7/1) and higher prices. Well the favourite after stumbling before negotiating the final curve lacked the spunk to make a race of it and it was the 15 to one shot Desert Gold from M R Singh’s yard who hoisted the winning flag after failing to even finish in the frame in his last five starts. Cashmere finished a game second ahead of Desert Gilt.