Bharath Singh-trained Pothus was ridden with great vigour by apprentice Rupal Singh to land the spoils in the Captain Courageous Cup at RCTC on Wednesday. Course favourite Coup De Grace called it a day after leading till the top of the straight where Gold Bond took over the running. Pothus moved with giant strides in the home stretch to get the better of his rival close home. Jockey A Sandesh notched up a double with Javed Khan-trained Perpetual Winning and Vijay Singh-schooled Duchamp to draw level with Suraj Narredu who drew a blank for the second day in succession. Sandesh now holds the edge for the jockeys’ championship as he has far more second placed horses against his name.

The afternoon commenced with Shyam Habbu’s Singapore Agatta (Stardan-Festive Light) coming good with Shezad Khan in the saddle. The filly, who was earlier called Moves Like Jagger, was involved in a keen tussle with City Heights all the way down the straight. Frail filly Constance, was having her fourth middle-distance  run in a month, and not surprisingly ended up a bad last. Over-racing such fillies and mares for the sake of  stake money tantamounts to cruelty and sours the animal as well.

The six-furlong sprint for the Scarlet Prince Handicap saw James Mckeown-trained filly Baglioni (Top Class-Bella)break out of the maiden ranks.  She was ridden with aplomb by the stable’s retained rider Hindu Singh. Both Mrs Willy Nilly and Shivayy need to come down the scale before they can score.

The Anzello Handicap witnessed heavily gambled Dancing Prince (Ace-Dancing Greens) galloping to victory. The seven-year-old got the better of runaway Kefira in the straight and won as he liked. The Vikash Jaiswal-trained runner was piloted by PS Chouhan. The seven-furlong race for youngsters saw Manzoni being backed to the exclusion of all others but the colt had no answer to the strong challenge issued by Jasbir Singh-trained Roxor (Net Whizz – Plymsole) in the straight. Mohit Singh rode the bay colt to victory. The rest finished far behind.

Possibly the season’s most well-planned gamble came good when Javed Khan-trained Perpetual Winning (Net Whizz-Perpetual Glory) picked up the Fleet Indian Handicap in a canter. The recent import from western India was well-prepared by his mentor to hand Sandesh the first of his two wins on a platter. He won by a street and looks  set to eventually reach the highest class.

Sandesh completed his brace with a smooth ride on Vijay Singh-trained Du Champ (Multidimensional-Reflected Glory) who won the last race of the day – The Avaglow Handicap – without too much trouble. Stellanova ran a good race to finish runner-up. .