Whether the followers of form liked it or not, Leo D’Silva trained seven-year old horse Corfe Castle apparently had a fight on his hands in the Governor’s Cup, where he was pitted against six rivals. Or this was what the market trend suggested as a lot of money wagered in the betting ring came the way of the four-year old filly New Look. The much expected showdown between Corfe Castle and New Look never materialised.

Xfinity grabbed the lead from the gates with Premier Action on his haunches and Corfe Castle racing last but in close touch of the small field. The order of running didn’t alter much except that Akshay Kumar improving the favourite’s position with every stride. New Look meanwhile raced close to rails in the third position. Corfe Castle (Excellent Art – Miss Danehill) had warmed up to his task as Akshay put him into top gear by the time only a furlong was left for home. Corfe Castle surged ahead leaving his rivals fighting for crumbs. Xfinity held on grimly to the runner up berth while New Look struggled to figure on the judge’s board.

Akshay started his day on a winning note with the crowd favourite Able Love (Sedgefield – Lopamudra) from the yards of N Ravinder Singh. Able Love ran true to form but had to be driven all out to cut short the start to finish bid of Beauty On Parade, who surrendered only in the last 100m. Miss Little Angel, a failed favourite last time out, devoured good ground in the last furlong but failed to collar the winner and ended second. Drd, as is his wont, finished close behind the winner, third to be precise. Beauty On Parade has had a forward run now and could find her mark when racing in the older set.

D Netto saddled Exotic Dancer defied the penalty incurred for her previous success and she went on to make it two in a row in the hands of Suraj Narredu. Lesser fancied than Ok Boss and N R I Millenium, the bay daughter of Air Support out of Exotic Fantasy headed the field but found Golden Forza nagging her on the way. Both Ok Boss and N R I Millenium were in chase of the front-running duo. Akshay had a hard time getting Ok Boss to accelerate and despite his strong urgings Ok Boss was going nowhere and found Exotic Dancer drawing away for a comfortable win. Golden Forza and N R I Millenium completed the judge’s frame.

The Colonel B Santosh Babu Memorial Cup for maiden juveniles threw a major surprise as K Satheesh trained Divine Connection (Mull Of Kintyre – Brunetta) stunned her rivals with her winning performance. Favourite Bellaque showed the way to the field over the five and half furlong trip and was followed by longshot Divine Connection and N R I Angel. Apprentice RS Jodha powered the former and despite veering out under pressure Divine Connection zoomed past Bellaque for a convincing win. Bellaque finished ahead of N R I Angel who ran green when it mattered most. Alpine Girl who met interference in the early part of the race weaved her way through the field to finish a short-head behind N R I Angel. The winner’s owner and stablemate Jack Daniel ran thereabouts to finish fifth.

Akshay ridden favourite Royal Grace took a level jump this time but caught a tartar in N R I Sport in the Artillery Cup run over seven furlongs. Jockey Antony Raj had G Shashikanth schooled N R I Sport (David Livingstone – Maid of Artois) in hot chase of Bangor On Dee who brought the field into the home stretch. N R I Sport tackled the leader easily but had to go all out to ward off the spirited challenge thrown by Royal Grace closer home. A length separated the two at the winning post. By The Bay ran on to finish third ahead of Bangor On Dee. The rest were simply not interested in the proceedings, or so it seemed.

LVR Deshmukh trained Mysterious Angel (Smuggler’s Cove – Mykonos) recorded her third straight career success in the concluding event of the day. Ajeeth Kumar had the three-year old Mysterious Angel well up in the front bunch as Suraj Narredu brushed Archangels to snatch the lead from Flamingo Fame at the 400m marker. With three furlongs left for home, Mysterious Angel moved up gradually to join Archangels and assumed command after a brief tussle that lasted a furlong. Mysterious Angel won untroubled thereafter and was home and dry by the time Pedro Planet and late-finishing Explosive could arrive on the scene. The fact that Mysterious Angel was conceding weight to her experienced rivals and yet thrashed them shows that the filly has some potential to match strides with the best on promotion.