One has to doff one’s hat to trainer Christopher Alford! He stuck out his neck and took a ‘Final Entry’ with his filly Euphrates though none of the cognoscenti had an inkling about her staying prowess. The connections had to shell out Rs 2.25 lakh for the mile-and-half classic which carried a winner’s purse of a little over Rs 9lakh. The much-delayed Oaks caused mainly by Scruples and Choegyal, finally left the starting stalls almost a half hour late. Scruples lost a shoe and could not be reshoed due to her uptight manners. Being the Oaks, which comes once only in the career of a promising filly, she was permitted to run with three shoes only. Choegyal then dropped her rider and bolted. She was eventually withdrawn.

The odds of the three fancied runners in the event remained unchanged – Kamilah 2/1, Mystical Rose 9/4 and Scruples 7/2. Euphrates was available at 12/1. As the gates opened, Lady Laurane went to the front at a fairly gentle pace, followed by Euphrates and Aretha. The favourite Kamilah was fourth of six runners while Scruples was biding her time in the last slot. The order virtually remained the same till Euphrates took over the running at the 600m marker. The doubting Thomases who felt the filly might not stay were in for a shock as the daughter of Phoenix Tower out of Age Of Magic stretched out elegantly and clocked a fraction over 24 seconds for the final 400 metres of the race. Kamilah was in hot pursuit in the straight but the eventual winner was travelling a little too smoothly for her, with jockey Neeraj Rawal only needing to give her couple of gentle reminders in the home stretch. Christopher Alford, who had bagged umpteen classics in Khaitan colours while in the saddle, led in his first classic winner as a trainer. The filly is the property of Andre Amthony Augustine.

In a brief chat with this correspondent, the trainer stated that he has not yet decided on whether to run his ward in the Derby. But my bet is that the connections will take their chances in the plum of the season as barring Sea Lion, none of the colts stationed at this centre have shown any promise. 

The supporting event, The Castlebridge Cup, saw Vijay Singh-trained Sitara (Arazan-Flaming Glory) make it a start-to-finish affair with jockey CS Jodha astride. The latter thus completed a treble for the day having won earlier atop Social Truth and Justified. Manvendra Singh-trained Social Truth (Planetaire-Gimmesumsugar) won the CM Verma Memorial Cup for two-year-olds without raising a sweat. The colt happens to be a half-brother to Juliette. Jodha was at his best while winning the Grand Madame Handicap astride Aashay Doctor-trained Justified (Multidimensional-Secret Garden) at odds of 6/1. Though out on handicap, the top-weight Redoubtable rather surprisingly closed as a piping hot on-money public choice. The weights were raised by 4kg and this played to Justified’s advantage as he was out of the Class II scale by two kgs at the handicap stage. Cliffhanger was a fair runner-up and needs to be followed.

The afternoon commenced with a bang as rank outsider Xfite (Perfect Stride-Alaric )from Javed Khan’s yard won the Fair Haven Handicap in the hands of RS Bhati. The favourite Discover seemed improved but lacked acceleration at a crucial juncture. Rewrite The Stars was the medium of a large gamble and is one for the notebook as is Houtzen who finished on well.

Vikash Jaiswal-trained Indian Tiger (David Ligingston-Mullagh) won the Star Of Italy Handicap from Rare Bird in a close contest. Apprentice Sujit Kumar Paswan thus became a full jockey after this race, having now ridden 40 winners.

The curtain came down with HS Bath -trained Nova (Letir Mor – Sorrento Steel) picking up the Finalist Handicap after staving off a strong challenge from Resolute. This completed a brace for jockey Neeraj Rawal.