Trainer Vijay Singh’s dark bay colt Black Pearl (Planetaire-Alvarita) made winning look easy while lifting the Calcutta 2000 Guineas at RCTC on Friday. Running after a long lay-off of over 10 months due to the global pandemic, the colt returned to the track with a bang as he left his rivals floundering in the final furlong. A leading trainer from the south whose horse was a participant in the Guineas immediately turned to this correspondent and stated confidently “He is by the far the best horse in India”. That is some compliment coming from the lips of a knowledgeable trainer of a rival stable.

For his part, a more than confident Vijay Singh commented that this run will bring him on quite a bit and his next target would be the Calcutta Derby. What Vijay really meant was that the brilliant colt was obviously not at his peak but still good enough to toss his rivals out of the window. The 2000 Guineas run was merely a race-gallop for the Calcutta Derby on Sunday, January 17. Some colt!

Jockey Suraj Narredu, who has partnered the unbeaten colt on all his five triumphs thus far, sat fifth of six runners while Mountain Lion set a scorching pace which ran even the pacemaker Court Jester off his feet. Supreme Legacy was not too far behind while a nonchalant Suraj bided his time in the second last slot. The order remained virtually the same till heads turned for home where the colt seemed to be aware of what was expected of him. Under Suraj’s guidance, he was next to Mountain Lion in a trice and sailed past him without much ado. Suraj gave his mount a loving pat with his left hand as he crossed the winning post as if to say “ that’s another job well done boy”. Supreme Legacy ran on to occupy the runner-up berth.

Jockey Trevor Patel rode one hell of a finish on Aashay Doctor-trained Awesome One (Dean’s Kitten-Aim To Achieve) to land the Burdwan Memorial Cup in style. In a field of nine runners, Trevor’s mount was drawn one and the jockey was content to sit tight in the rear of the field while Amorous White set a cracking pace. Another fancied runner Prince Satsuma was in touch with the leader and appeared ready to pounce on him in the straight. However, Trevor took the shortest route home and managed to squeeze a passage between Amorous White and the rails. He went hell for leatherthereafter in his inimitable fashion to put the issue beyond doubt.

Earlier, trainer Aashay Doctor had led in Intellection (Western Aristocrat-Alaric) in the 2000 metres race for the Twilight Lady Handicap. Jockey DS Deora forced a passage between front-running Bay Crush and Wind Chaser to win a s he liked.

The afternoon commenced with an elated trainer Christopher Alford leading in the first two-year-old winner of the season – Amazing Dream. The colt by Strong suit out of Dream Talk made every post a winning one under Srinath’s firm handling. Stablemate Big Pearl followed him home to make it a one-two for Alford.

After summering in Pune due to the lack of a monsoon meeting at this centre this year, Javed Khan’s Devine Chakra carved out a pillar-to-post victory in the mile race for the Sreepriya Handicap to break out of the maiden ranks with a show of strength. Jockey Sandesh rode the son of Letir Moir out of Avec Plaisir with aplomb and had no difficulty in keeping at the bay the ante-post favourite Waytogo who seems ready for the winner’s berth after this race. The top-weight had the misfortune of losing some ground at the jump-out.

The Alvarada Handicap saw a packed field of 13 runners line-up for the start. However, Arshad Alam on Raunak Banerji-trained six-year-old Big Star took no chances and hit the front almostimmediately. The son of Western Aristocrat out of Knockenduff galloped on merrily even when threatened by Whispering Grass near the distance post. Arshad tried similar tactics on Raunak’s filly Louboutin in the day’s final event but his effort came to nought thanks to a spirited run by Hukumat (Win Legend-Epic) with Hindu Singh in the saddle.