On a day when most outsiders waltzed to victory, the classy Prevalent Force proved his mettle in the Mysore Race Club Anniversary Cup, the plum event on the Derby eve.

The favourite from Darius Byramji's yard superbly piloted by Zervan floored his six rivals including the Irfan Ghatala-trained Shesmyscript, who performed like a dud after promising to run Prevalent Force close. The consistent Merlot finished second behind the effortless winner, while Sakura continued to disappoint, managing only the third spot. Prevalent Force, now back at his best is certain to pick up a couple of plums in the forthcoming Bangalore winter season.

The Bipin schooled Steinlight and Super Smart from the stables of Rajesh Narredu garnered maximum support in the Gayathri Devi Memorial Trophy, the principal added attraction run over a distance of 2000 meters. While Steinlight after raising hopes went out of gas at the top of the straight, Super Smart ably piloted by Prashant Dhebe produced a sparkling gallop in the final furlong to romp home a deserving winner.

Last start winner Memoriter from trainer Azhar Ali's yard and Cuban Pete from the stables of Sulaiman Attaollahi were backed to the exclusion of their eight rivals in the upper division of the Sharan Lakshmanan Memorial Trophy. The latter in his effort to make every post a winning one failed to keep himself going in the final furlong and only managed to fill the frame, while Memoriter for more reasons than one found the going tough and finished in the ruck. Speedster from Warren Singh's yard surprised most in the hands of apprentice Shamaz Sharief who appears to have improved and is likely to emerge as the leading apprentice this season. Chetan Gowda with four winners to his credit is also in with a chance and the fight for the apprentice crown should be between the two.

The concluding event, the lower division of the Bottolanda Trophy saw a planned coup by S M Johnson's team fail to bring home the desired result. Classic Jewel piloted by R Shelar was heavily backed but all Shelar could do was gain the runner-up berth behind Country's Crown piloted by Vijay Kumar who to his credit entered the winner's circle after a long long time.

Earlier the Prasanna Kumar trained King Of The Wind met a tartar in Hukum from Neil Devaney's yard in the R M Puttanna Memorial Trophy. King Of The Wind and the Ganapathy-trained Silver Dew were fancied most, but it was Hukum who gained the day much to the chagrin of the followers of form.

Like Hukum the ten to shot Grey Channel piloted by T S Jodha shocked the railbirds in the opening event run over a mile. In this event, facile last start winner Glorious Dancer and Rorito received good support but both the fancied runners flopped badly resulting in most punters starting the day on a disastrous note.

Swiss Admiral was the only other fancied winner along with Prevalent Force on the day.