After all the hype and hoopla and the buzz the opening day's races at Mysuru had generated, the opener on Thursday proved to be a disaster, most railbirds returning home with a big hole in the pocket. All the seven favourites failed to justify their top billing, while most lesser fancied runners and a couple of rankoutsiders floored the followers of form. After the Monnappa-trained Mystic Divine surprised the two fancied contestants, Elevado from Johnson's yard and Eye The Mind from the stables of Pratap Kamath in the opening event, the favourites much to the chagrin of the punters played truant and at the end of the day, it was the bookmakers who were smiling all the way to the bank, while the hard hit punters slowly walked home, stunned by the shock results.

The first plum of the season, the H H Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar Memorial Trophy was claimed by the ten to one shot His Eminence from Ranjeet Shinde's yard. The winner piloted by Antony Raj produced an astounding gallop in the final furlong to peg back the belated effort of Segera, while Nothing To Worry hung on to save money in place. The overwhelming favourite Emelda from Chennai trainer B Suresh's yard, who garnered the maximum support on the strength of her impressive second behind the multi-classic winning stablemate My Opinion in her last essay failed to even make the frame and this cost the punters dear. The good word doing the rounds in the stands before the plum event was that Emelda is one safe bet, but the Chennai raider raced in patches and was out of contention even before the race came on a boil. The runner-up Segera was a hot case and his pilot Mushraf will need to answer a lot of tough questions. Mushraf, who chose to grace the wrong end of the field for most part of the seven furlongs trip made no effort to provide Segera the galloping ground and instead put the runner-up behind a wall of horses before Segera dragged him to finish second behind His Eminence. It was clear that the rider was just not interested to make a race of it and it will surprise all the knowledgeable if the stipes and stewards exercising vigil fail to seek explanation on the lacklustre effort of Mushraf.

The Appachu-trained Kingofthejungle and Country's Flash from the stables of Feroz Khan garnered the maximum support in the principal added attraction, the B K Krishnadevaraj Urs Memorial Trophy run over a sprint, but it was the five to one shot Eddie The Eagle who reigned supreme in the hands of apprentice Hasib Alam. The winner from Sajid's yard, who looked a picture of fitness at the parade ring produced a gutsy effort to gain the day from the fast finishing runner-up Crimson Fire and Wind Power. The `Jodi' to the delight of the bookmakers went out of the window even before the 13 runners negotiated the final curve and that put most railbirds on the mat.

After stretching every sinew to come up trumps on Eddie The Eagle, Hasib Alam produced his best on the well fancied second in demand at the betting ring Aberlour who edged out the lesser fancied Sound Of Canon's in a pulse-pounding finish. The winner from Vishal Yadav's yard, who had impressed most while finishing third behind the favourite Flash Bond in their last head-to-head clash got the better of the public choice before nailing Sound Of Canon's in the final stride at the shadow of the winning post. Hindu Singh's below par effort on the Pratap Kamath schooled Flash Bond  raised many eye brows and the questionable effort calls for an explanation. It will do the authorities a lot of good if they start to crack the whip on the blow-hot, blow cool performances of the saddle artistes who for more reasons than one fail to perform to the best of their ability.

Coorg General from Aditya's yard was a medium of a king-sized gamble in the Lavasa Plate run over a mile. The connections of the `General'  were confident that the promising four-kilo claimer Salman will pull off the coup and they went bang-bang in the bookmaker's ring and quickly Coorg General after opening (4/1) was slammed down, firm favourite at (5/2), while the price on the other two fancied runners, the topweighted Forest View and Aurele from Feroz Khan's yard drifted out. Aurele piloted in determined fashion by leading pro Srinath gained the day edging out the long shot Coyote Girl, while all that the Coorg General did was take a lot of good money down the drain. The advantageously placed in at the scales, Vandan finished third ahead of Forest View who will be a different proposition next time out with this run under his belt. The same comment cannot be made in connection with Coorg General, who needs to improve a great deal to make his presence felt in this class.

Festive Star and the topweighted last start winner Niche Cannabis from Ramesh's yard topped the betting board in the concluding event, the Pune Plate run over a distance of seven furlongs and at end it was another `Jodi' flying out of the window much to the chagrin of the railbirds who lost out big, outsiders pulling the plug and fusing out the favourites. The ten to one shot Impelling Power partnered by Sai Kiran entered the winners' circle with a late dash, snuffing out the challenge of Percivale while Festive Star had to rest content with the third spot. Niche Cannabis after failing to gain a favourable position early on in the race retired and called it a day, lacking the gas in the tank to make a race of it in the final two furlongs.

Poorna Chandra Tejaswi's Vijaya Surabhi was strongly fancied in the Somnathpur Plate run over a sprint. The well backed contestant failed to justify the confidence of her supporters and her dismal effort surprised her connections taking into account that Vijaya Surabhi had impressed most in a mock race. Two nohopers, Felicita from Hellal Moses' yard and Double Trouble from the stables of Bobby dominated the finish before the former flashed past the post first to deliver a knock-out blow to the followers of form. Felicita piloted by Kiran Naidu paid a whopping dividend, Rs, 1,535 on a tenner at the tote window, while the runner-up Double Trouble made a few fluke seekers happy, paying out Rs, 348 on a tenner on the Second Horse Pool (SHP). The forecast in this event made one lucky punter rich, a handsome purse of Rs, 39,038 paid out on a single ticket.

After winning the opening event, Mystic Divine again needed to win a second time in the Stewards room following an objection lodged by Imran Khan, the rider of third placed Eye The Mind against the winner for shifting out and taking his ground and causing interference in the final furlong, but the stewards quickly and rightly overruled the protest taking into account that Eye The Mind was a beaten horse and the winner had won with a measure of comfort. But Angad, it is needless to mention will be penalised for failing to exercise control on his mount and this will send the message down to the jockeys room that jockeys need to maintain a straight course all through the course.  But will this happen? well your guess is as good as mine.