It was an eventful opening day of the cold weather racing season at RCTC on Saturday. In the main event of the afternoon, The Betindiaraces Bet Responsibly Handicap, Daniel David’s Soaring High – a recent import from Ooty – completed a hat-trick of wins when he pipped runaway Sitara in the shadow of the winning post. The favourite Violin finished a fair fourth and thus completed a preparatory race gallop for a future target.

Sired by Win Legend out of Skyliner, Soaring High was piloted by able apprentice Abhay Singh. One must compliment Daniel David on this clever placement of his ward, not to mention the declaration of an useful apprentice in order to get an allowance. This unknown quantity from the southern circuit caught most by surprise. Kudos to David!

At the other end of the scale was jockey Hindu Singh who dug his own grave one race earlier. Riding the public choice Legendary Striker in the Relevance Handicap, he eased up his mount at the 100 metres marker when he was about seven lengths ahead and did not even bother to look back till it was too late. Sensing an opportunity, jockey CS Jodha atop Sunderji-trained Kamilah (Roderic O’connor-My Lakshmi), urged the filly into top gear and she responded well to get the better of Legendary Striker at the all-important end. Hindu paid the penalty for careless and overconfident horsemanship for which the Stewards have suspended him for six race-days - that is till Boxing Day’s races. He will be permitted to ride on New Year’s Day and Derby day on January 9. Another rider who has been suspended is Sameer Khan for his handling of Seasky on the final day of the Monsoon Meeting. He will not be participating on the saddle for as many as 12 race-days culminating on February 4, 2021.

The afternoon commenced quietly enough with public choice Bemused from the Javed Khan yard getting the better of second favourite Melody close home. The four-year-old colt by Chevalier out of Habituated was responsibly piloted by RS Bhati – always keeping front-running Melody in striking distance. In the next event, the seven-furlong race for The Pa Bear Handicap, the two fancied runners – Joanna and Discover – finished in the ruck, miles behind the winner Wandering Angel. Their respective trainers may face quite a challenge to make these two well-bred three-year-olds see the winning post this season – a most unlikely happening especially in the case of Joanna who dropped back rapidly from the 800 marker. It is quite possible that the filly may not be feeling too well for some reason or other. Vinay Jaiswal atop Vikash Jaiswal-trained Wandering Angel (Saamidd-Offshore Anna) grabbed the opportunity to make this a one-horse race.

Neil Darashah’s Sea Lion (Phoenix Tower-Tropical Blue) was the shortest priced favourite to fetch home the honours during the afternoon. However, the ten-to-three-on public choice was left at the gates by about five lengths which he eventually made up under Arshad Alam’s stick to win easily enough by over three lengths from Basharat.

The curtain came down with the afternoon’s biggest outsider – Rare Bird (Surfrider-Rhapsody In Blue) . The five-year-old from Aashay Doctor’s yard staved off a strong challenge from Yuvi, thanks to apprentice Rupal Singh’s hard riding. The favourite Circus Queen finished a bad last while second favourite Silken Stride finished in the ruck.