Trainer Bharath Singh’s crack sprinter Agnostic (Top Class-Kabini) lifted the Nero Cup run over 1100 metres in record time at RCTC on Wednesday. He won by four long lengths from Barack and in the process broke Char Bahar’s twenty-four year old record set in 1998. Char Bahar had broken the record twice that year – once on New Year’s Day and then again in mid-February. Agnostic accomplished his feat with a degree of ease despite the false rails from 1200m to 400m. Dashrath Singh had him racing in second spot behind Trump Girl as the gates opened and took over the running with a single reminder in the straight. Thereafter, it was a one-horse race.

Jockey Suraj Narredu completed a brace during the afternoon while astride Social Truth and Yuvi. Trainer Manvendra Singh’s Social Truth (Planetaire-Gimmesumsugar) made every post a winning one in the 1200 metres race for the Touch Of Silver Plate. The colt made it with a degree of comfort with Big Brown following him over seven lengths behind. The second favourite Beautiful showed some early speed before dropping back to finish an easy moving third. She will no doubt be better for this run. 

Vikash Jaiswal-trained Yuvi (Excellent Art-Scholastic Giant) was ridden in a similar manner by Suraj Narredu as he made every post a winning one in the 1100 metres race for The Right Again Handicap. Amazonia lost some ground at the start but did well to finish within two lengths of the winner. Circus Queen ran on to finish third while carrying top-weight.
The afternoon in fact belonged to runners with early speed as two more runners made start-to-finish affairs of their races. In the opening race of the day, The Pretty Woman Handicap, Atom was installed as the favourite after his narrow defeat to Eastside last time out but he continued to play second fiddle on this occasion as well. Javed Khan-trained Exotic Queen (Letir Mor – Star Of Venus) won the 1100 metres race at every post with Amyn Merchant astride, despite the top-weight she was carrying. Jockey Nikhil Naidu atop Atom had to be content with the runner-up berth astride Delphini as well in the six-furlong sprint for The Sunray Handicap. Vijay Singh-trained Galen (Win Legend – Sunshine Nell) made every post a winning one with Akshay Kumar up. After running in the Derby and The Leger, Galen found the six-furlong sprint more to his liking. Akshay however had to use the stick in the straight to keep Delphini at bay.

Vijay’s Wencheng (Smuggler’s Cove-Born Royale) won her third race of the season in style as she pocketed the seven-furlong race for The Flirting Vision Handicap without much ado. RS Bhati did the honours atop the filly. Maintaining her in fourth spot while Aggression and Devine Chakra cut the wind, Wencheng sailed smoothly into the lead when asked for an effort by the centre’s leading jockey.