The opening day of the Calcutta monsoon meeting commenced with a minute’s silence observed in the memory of former chairman of RCTC – Mr BM Khaitan. Mr Khaitan was a central figure and leading owner at this centre during the seventies, eighties and nineties. In a very nice gesture, the Club authorities also observed a minute’s silence in the memory of lesser-known trainer Deepak Karki, whose untimely death in May shocked the racing fraternity.

On the racing front, crafty trainer Vikash Jaiswal and able apprentice Rupal Singh combined successfully to fetch home a well-deserved double. Trainer Jaiswal’s five-year-old gelding Kramer (Phoenix Tower-Meydana) raised a winning gallop midway up the straight to sail past Admiral Hatsu and lift the Aladancer Cup. The totalisator favourite Flag Flying had a disastrous run and finished up last of six runners. Apprentice Rupal Singh sat in a box seat, behind the front-runners till near the distance post before putting his mount into to gear. The win of Kramer sealed a double for the trainer and apprentice as they had earlier combined fruitfully in the day’s opener where five-year-old mare Nextstar (Stern Opinion-Miss Langkawi) made every post a winning one. The run of the second favourite Iconia was poor to say the least.

The only other professional to record a lucrative double was apprentice RS Bhati who booted home Bath-trained Shanayaa’s Pet and Habbu-schooled Bacaardi. It is encouraging to see trainers use the allowance claimed by these adept apprentices to good effect. Like Next Star, Bath-schooled Shanayaa’s Pet made every post of the As Ever Handicap a winning one. The seven-year-old has been maintained in tip-top condition by her mentor. Though conceding a chunk of weight, Stelvio Pass was a fair second. Sicario’s third seems to suggest that he may prefer a little more ground.

Bharath Singh-trained Lumos (Arazan-Sea Queen) may have been ignored for the wrong reason (his leap-year rider Md Islam). However, Islam proved that in the future  one would have to ignore him at one’s own risk. He had picked up two wins last winter and did extremely well to get the better of piping hot favourite Lady Two in the last stride on this occasion. Delhi’s champion jockey Dhanu Singh Deora seemed to have the race in the bag till Islam and Lumos decided otherwise. Kudos to the pair and to Bharath for maintaining faith in his ride – smart money came on Lumos in the ring.

Trainer Javed Khan’s The Kiss was the shortest priced favourite to win during the day. The four-year-old filly by Multidimensional out of Abronia was ridden with superb confidence by Nikhil Naidu. He allowed Dangal some leeway till into the straight before giving  the speedy filly a free rein and she responded magnificently. In this race, Bergamot was very fractious and had to be withdrawn at the gates. Kantai was seen to finish on well and she is another one who may prefer a longer trip.

The curtain came down with Shyam Habbu’s Nembe Greek closing as the even-money favourite. But like his stablemate Flag Flying, he too ran a miserable race and finished in the ruck. It was Habbu-trained Bacaardi (Whatshescript-Shanghai Gal) who delivered the goods in the hands of apprentice RS Bhati. Second favourite Whitewalker was very close to pulling it off but Bhati’s persistence paid off in the end.