Arabian Queen (Win Legend – Aymaras) trained by Srinivas Reddy showed remarkable improvement over her two previous performances to bag the Godolphin Barb Million, the feature race of the day. Arabian Queen, well-ridden by Akshay Kumar, stalked leader London Bells until into the straight. Akshay quickly got to work on Arabian Queen and surged past London Bells with about two furlongs to go and the filly quickened well to establish a handy lead approaching the distance post. Sensibility took her time to get going and that delay in finding her rhythm cost her dearly. She did come at Arabian Queen with threatening strides, but it was all too late as Arabain Queen kicked on relentlessly to hold off Sensibility by just ¾ lengths. Essential, the other well supported runner, ended a tame third.

Prasad Raju trained Scramjet (Air Support – Scarlette) shrugged off the test of his staying prowess by rolling on smoothly to cap his first win over the 2000 meters 1 EME Centre Rolling Trophy, the supporting event of the day. He had run second to Kesariya Balam over nine furlongs last time out and avenged that defeat with a strong finishing run that was good enough to ward off Kesariya Balam. Scramjet took charge after the runaway leader Skipton bowed out early in the straight. Scramjet stormed ahead to take charge and also built a good lead going into the last furlong. Kesariya Balam had to cover the leeway and he did narrow down the gap, but Scramjet had enough cushion and the momentum to flash past the winning post clearly ahead of Kesariya Balam. Summer Knight ran on to finish third without bothering the top two.

In Contention (Leitir Mor – Remembrance of You) scored a smart win to bring about his second win on the trot, this time with an even better timing. Bandit King dashed into the lead and entered the straight with In Contention on his inside and Maximum Glamour on the outside, In Contention, with Ajinkya in the saddle, accelerated fluently and sailed along the rails with a good burst to seal the issue there and then. In Contention opened a decisive lead, while Maximum Glamour struggled to stay ‘in contention’ with the others breathing down his neck. Bandit King rallied again to wrest back his lead, but the Sunderji trainee was simply too good. In Contention won comfortably from bandit King, November Rain and Lamha added more misery as they managed to push Maximum Glamour out of the frame.

L D’Silva trained Royal Grace (Leitir Mor – Coccinella) showed good results after taking a drop to the sprint and notched up her second career victory. What makes her performance even more dramatic was that she was a bit tardy at the start and rallied from the last position to make steady progress even before they turned for home.

Apollo raced through the inner rails to tackle long-time leader Mind Reader with Thunder Road waiting to pounce on these two. There was a line of horses snapping close behind with Royal Grace also joining the bunch with about a furlong to go. Just when Thunder Road went into the lead, Royal Grace picked up speed and jockey Afroz rode out strongly to zip past Thunder Road to carve out a narrow win with a precisely timed finish. Royal Grace won by a neck from Thunder Road. Lockheart too finished well to force his way past Apollo to finish in the money.

Anantha Vatsalya trained DRD (Corporate Jungle – My Mood) raced in second and pounced on Lock Stella soon on entering the straight. DRD slipped into the lead on a tight rein and picked up speed with every stride thereafter. He was clearly ahead in the final furlong and even when Sea Wolf arrived with a good burst of speed, DRD never really came under pressure. He held on by a narrow margin to win from Sea Wolf. Sacred Lamp improved well from the outside to take the third spot.

Top In Class (Top Class – Bella) trained by Hassan, showed out in the final furlong to top them all with a blistering run to add to his solitary win this far. Jockey Akshay Kumar had a lot to do in the straight as he had to switch lanes and cover some distance to get past the front bunch. Golden Forza, Monarchos and NRI Magic were in front when Top In Class started to pick up momentum. He caught up with NRI Magic just when he had taken over from Golden Forza with under a furlong to go. But Top In Class had the dazzling speed to cruise past and score a facile victory by three lengths. NRI Magic kept the fast finishing Hashtag at bay to take the runner-up spot.

Earlier in the day L D’Silva trained Ayr (Roderic O’connor – Book Thief) had it easy while outpacing his rivals and launched his maiden victory without dropping sweat. Jockey Kuldeep Singh worked up early speed and took Ayr to the front and established a huge lead even before they turned for home. The rest was easy. Ayr maintained a safe distance from his rivals and won easing up by a good margin of three and half lengths. True Icon did well to cut the margin which was a lot more midway down the straight. Crimson Rose ran on to finish third, but can do better after this experience.

Long-shot Furious Fun (Speaking of Which – Veena’s Star), from trainer Prasad Raju’s yard, pulled off a close victory in the hands of jockey Kiran Naidu in the concluding race of the day. The race saw a delayed start with first Its On squatting inside the gates and then Cosmico and Royal Support being troublesome to enter the stalls. All three were withdrawn.

Furious Fun led from the start and kicked on after entering the homestretch. Angelita had to recover from a slow start and had improved to fourth coming into the straight. However, Angelita was not her fluent self in the homestretch and the jockey had to make all efforts to get her to focus and pick up. It was too late when she eventually did and Furious Fun had enough legs to carry him through, past the post to win by under one length. Angelita finished with good speed, but has herself to blame for the narrow loss. Theo’s Choice had his chances being up in front, but squandered it away, considering that he finished on the haunches of Angelita.

For the professionals, trainers L D’Silva and Prasad Raju saddled a double each.