A clever piece of horsemanship by the experienced Imran Chisty atop Arrowfield (Phoenix Tower-Dramatikos) saw the Javed Khan-trained five-year-old gelding lift the Governor’s Cup at RCTC on Wednesday. Realising at the top of the straight that the 5/2 favourite New England had stolen a march on him, Chisty opted for a gap near the rails and got it in the nick of time to ultimately peg back his adversary by a couple of lengths. The rest of the fancied runners failed to make the grade.

Jockey-turned-trainer Christopher Alford seems to have struck up a lucrative partnership with ace rider Trevor Patel as the duo were in the winner’s enclosure twice on this day. The first of these was when Sullivan (Phoenix Tower-Lisa’s Litten) won the Rotary Club Of Calcutta Victoria Cup in a nail-biting finish from the heavily-backed favourite Aggression. The winner must be considered a trifle fortunate as the latter was slow into stride by about five lengths. But then that’s all a part and parcel of the ‘glorious uncertainties’ that accompany this wonderful sport known as thoroughbred racing. Despite this huge setback, young apprentice Tejeshwar made a bold bid to snatch the verdict in the final furlong but failed by a whisker. Trevor brought the curtain down in style when he coaxed a late gallop out of the 12/10 favourite Guitar Girl (Strong Suit-Conquer)  in the straight to pip Rush For Gold and Daneira at the wire..  

Vijay Singh-trained Valeria bagged the Pokerguru Cup with CS Jodha going hell for leather to overhaul surprise runner-up Seventh Step.The favourite Peluche was a poor fourth . Lying a handy third till the top of the straight while Pelion called the shots, Jodha slipped his mount through along the rails to pull it off.

Leading jockey Suraj Narredu started on the right note when he piloted James Mckeown-trained Darsh (Win Legend-Ice Point) to a regulation victory in the curtain-raiser – The Ayra’s Pet Cup. It was an interesting race over a mile and half as the favourite Classico (whose gate-manners are nothing to write home about) left all chances in the starting stalls.  It was the handicap horse Rustler who ran a great race from the outset but succumbed to the superior finishing power of Narredu astride Darsh.

Speaking of handicap horses, Vikash Jaiswal’s Bambini Festa (Royal Gladiator-Markova) threw the form book out of the window to land the spoils in the Campion Handicap.  He had finished 10th, 6th, 12th, 7th and 14th in his last five starts. Not weighed down by such statistics, young and able apprentice Sujit Kumar Paswan was working on his bottom-weighted mount from the 800m marker and it paid rich dividends once he hit the straight. Though he swerved out considerably, he held on to his lead once in the home stretch and relegated the two fancied runners Poras and Yuvan to the minor placings.
Jaiswal completed a well-deserved double when his speedster Fenicia Mist (Samidd-Yamuna) made every post of the Rotary District 3291 Cup a winning one with a degree of comfort. Jockey PS Chouhan took no chances from the outset and showed a clean pair of heels to his 13 rivals.