Rank outsider Miss Little Angel (Top Class – Isle of Avalon) stunned on-money favourite The Image in the shadow of winning post to claim the A Krishnaswamy Memorial Cup on Saturday. The Ashhad Asbar piloted The Image was heavily fancied to triumph and was within kissing distance of the winning post after tackling Malaala with about a furlong left for home. Much to the chagrin of her supporters, the M Srinivas Reddy groomed filly seemed unsettled and ran green which ultimately cost her the race. The pressure exerted by Asbar and the money load she carried on her back may have possibly affected The Image’s ability. G Shashikanth trained and apprentice Santosh Raj ridden Miss Little Angel, who didn’t suffer much at the start, cashed in on the opportunity provided by the favourite and spared The Image a neck at the post. Mysterious Angel rallied well to finish a close third just half length behind the runner up. Malaala, after being intimidated by The Image while overtaking her, fell back and eventually finished fourth.

At the start, P Vikram ridden Limoncello veered out as she jumped out from draw four and put paid to the hopes of the runners on her left. The worst affected were Gregor Clegane and Mysterious Angel. Limoncello subsequently hit the front only to surrender the lead to Malaala at the top of the straight.

Suraj Narredu partnered two on-money favourites and had an armchair ride to victory astride both Arabian Queen and Romero to victory. Arabian Queen (Win Legend – Aymaras) from Srinivas Reddy’s yard lay a handy fourth as N R I Blue headed the field and had Exponent and Glimmer Of Hope racing on his tail. The half money favourite made steady progress as the heads turned for home and soon Narredu asked her for an effort. The filly warmed up quickly to tackle the tiring leader in the last 100m and drew away for a convincing win. Lady Danger finished in the money while Gurbaaz ended fourth despite the desperate efforts of Akshay Kumar.

Narredu’s next assignment was atop Hard To Toss, who failed to live up to his name in the second division of the Sandown Park Plate. Despite a slow jump and minor interference at the start from Blissful, Hard To Toss was in with a chance in the last furlong but he too appeared to have crumbled under the weight of the public purse he was asked to carry. K Satheesh saddled mare Blissful (Net Whizz – Incanto Bliss) went stride for stride with Exotic Dancer all the way and wrest the lead with little over a furlong from home. Blissful then accelerated well when spurred by apprentice RS Jodha and won warding off City Of Bliss. By The Bay ran third and was followed by Bellagio. As the gates opened Blissful went on to Different, who in turn knocked Morior Invictus off his stride. Morior Invictus ended a close and noteworthy fifth after covering up lost ground in the straight.

Advance Guard caused a major upset in the Nelston Plate where the public entrusted its purse to Laxman Singh schooled Philanthropist, who had Narredu to guide his fortunes on this occasion. Unlike his stable-mate Grand Duke who lost a distance at the start, Satheesh’s ward Team Player jumped out smartly to show the way to the seven horse field over the mile and quarter trip. Second favourite Yesterday, who was in close attendance of Team Player, then assumed command to raise hopes of an imminent victory. However, with just about 300m left for the destination, LVR Deshmukh trained Yesterday ran out of fuel and surrendered the lead to stable-mate Advance Guard (Air Support – Six Sigma). The winner finished on strongly under the urgings P Ajeeth Kumar and zoomed past Yesterday for a comfortable victory. Favourite Philanthropy graced the wrong end of the field initially and sent distress signals when the field was halfway through the journey. It would be interesting to learn what may have gone wrong with Philanthropy which could explain his inexplicable show.

For the second time this season, Kingston, also hailing from trainer Satheesh’s yard, veered out badly to his left when the gates flew open but fortunately for the other runners he was drawn the widest on this occasion. Meanwhile, Leo D’Silva nursed Amyra (Leitir Mor – Pandora) stormed into the lead and made every post a winning one in the hands of BR Kumar. Kingston made rapid ground once RS Jodha steadied him and came with raking strides to finish third behind Drd. General Atlantic ran a good fourth ahead of Akshay ridden second favourite Pacific Command.

The brilliance of Romero (Tenth Star – Radical Attraction), who was relocated to Neelesh Rawal’s yard after his debut at Bangalore this summer under Irfan Ghatala’s charge, proved to be a saving grace for Narredu and the punters both. Romero was kept a handy third by Narredu as Path Of Peace and Jack Daniel led the field into the straight. It took a couple of reminders from Narredu’s stick for Romero to surge forward and he went sailing clear of Path Of Peace who was well ahead of stable-mate Divine Beauty and God Is Kind. The rest of the runners never seemed to be in the hunt at all.