Mystical smashed the opposition in the Gr.3 Usha Stud Bangalore Summer Million on Sunday. Undoubtedly, he is the find of the season. The son of Alnasr Alwasheek now ranks alongside the likes of Holding Court and he is a serious contender for the Indian classics. Mystical had no difficulty in overcoming his opponents and the adverse underfoot conditions in the manner of a classic horse and leapfrogged in the ratings. Both Mystical and Holding Court are now rated over 50. Interestingly, at this point of time, quite a few three-year olds enjoy a ranking above 40. This had not happened in the past. Surely the quality of colts this year has been of a high order and the trend of their domination against the fillies is in keeping with what is obtaining world wide. In the past, fillies like Crown Treasure, Littleover, Allaire, Six Speed et al proved invincible against their opposite sex. There seems to be a definite change in the pattern following steep rise in breeding standards in India. Mystical’s three wins this season were achieved in breath-taking manner. It is intriguing as to how he ran unplaced in his previous two starts! It must have taken some doing to do that! Though he was conceding weight to all his adversaries, there was no doubt about his superiority. He went into the race as a cramped odds-on favourite. Galloping Bay set the pace for the mile long trip, followed by Wingnaprayer, Risada and Mystical biding his time in fourth or fifth position while Mallesh preferred to keep Fedora in the rear, with only Republic Day trailing the field. Risada was hugging the rails and jockey Appu made the mistake of keeping the filly there because when the field bunched up, he was going to find it difficult to find his way out with a tiring Galloping Bay falling back into his path after finishing the job of pace making. In the event, Appu had to wait till all the main contenders passed him to make his move and this perhaps cost him a definite second place. Mystical came into the straight, getting past everyone merely on his cruising speed, and once asked for an effort he left the field standing to win by a distance. Fedora, the winner of Gr.1 Poonawalla Breeders’ Multi Million plodded on to be second, with Risada moving from behind to get the third spot ahead of Hugo. Hugo went into the race with high expectations but then surely he is not classic material. Mystical will now be rested till the winter season and he will be chiefly campaigned at Mumbai. Trainer Ganapathy has a champion in the making in Mystical and the progress of this compact son of Alnasr Alwasheek is something that the Poonawalla Stud Farm would be watching with baited breath in the hope of halting the poor run of their wards in the classics in the country in the last one year or so. It rained quite heavily just after the Million was run and as the track had been battered by rain consistently for a week, the underfoot conditions were tricky and the jockeys were reluctant to ride. The Stewards decided to cancel the last three races of the day. Earlier in the day, Imtiaz Sait trained Pamela Bordes, who had not moved up in the handicap scale to the point she is capable of because of a setback, recorded a facile win in the Lt. Col. Gaunt Memorial Cup. The daughter of Flitch was strongly fancied to win after her eye-catching second behind Rainier. Though she was not in a forward position for most part of the journey, Pamela Bordes came through the middle to win as she liked from Rare Ivory and Kartikeri. Rare Ivory seems to be mending his ways and was a prominent runner in the race. Arjun Mangalorkar trained Adriel had dropped well below the mark at which he had last won, at Mysore a year ago. Now taking on modest opposition in the Batu Gantong Plate (Div.I), Adriel came through the rails and went away for a win by a widening margin of seven lengths. Maggie Thatcher could do no better than finish second best while favourite Spanish Sun played truant. Samar Singh’s good run continued when the well fancied Bay Island got up in time to get the better of Boonlay to win the lower division of the race. Fearless Princess held off a stiff challenge of Alejandros to lift the Ministerial Cup, a race for maiden three-year olds. Fearless Princess quickened nicely on turning for home and established a winning lead even as the full brother to Adolfito was warming up. Surely the distance was against the favourite. Superestrella was finishing the fastest and had she been given a clear run, she could well have caused a flutter.