Trainer Aashay Doctor notched up a well-deserved treble at RCTC on Thursday with his wards Stockbridge, Livisilla and Psychic Force. He will most certainly cherish the victory of the last named in the Sana Cup run over 2000 metres the most. The win was somewhat reminiscent of the triumph of Hovercraft in the Invitation Cup of 1964 when the seemingly invincible public choice Prince Pradeep drifted out in the straight as jockey Raghunath had lost his left stirrup iron early in the race. Faggotter coolly guided home Hovercraft along the rails. However, there was no such hard-luck story in this case.Having an useful lead of over six lengths at the 600m marker, the eager young apprentice Saqlain on the 3-to-1-on favourite Redoubtable, made the cardinal mistake of accelerating around the infamous Calcutta hairpin, which may well have cost him the race as his mount began to drift out thereafter to the outer rails - finally ending on the wide outside. The vastly experienced Neeraj Rawal was cool as a cucumber atop the seven-year-old top-weight Psychic Force (Multidimensional-Psychic Light) as he grabbed the opportunity gleefully and smoothly took the shortest route home. It was a fair and square result. What transpired is a part and parcel of this game of uncertainties. In his post-race comments, the trainer praised Neeraj Rawal for his pace judgement. “It was his experience which ultimately fetched me the race”, he said.

Sotckbridge (Speaking Of Which-Sheryl) set the ball rolling for Neeraj and Aashay. Neeraj rode a regulation race atop the favourite in the Skyexch Handicap. Following front-runner D Knight Mysore till the home turn, Neeraj shot his mount ahead in the straight to win as he liked. In the next race – The Exchangemarket.com Handicap – jockey Ashad Asbar made every post a winning one astride Aashay Doctor-trained Livisilla (Win Legend-Auryn). Fancied by many, Whistle Blower was a poor fourth while Exotique ended up last of five. Blue Origin had to be withdrawn at the gates as he was very fractious.

Jockey Sandesh too enjoyed a double. He guided home Bharath Singh-trained Randolph (Sanus per Aquam-Sunshine Girl) in the Brown Wolf Handicap. Though he beat nothing of note, the big-boned three-year-old bay colt is slowly but surely getting into his stride. He stretched out well in the final furlong and may prefer an extended trip. Sandesh brought the curtain down with another three-year-old. He piloted the filly Kiefer (Roderic O’Connor – Keukenhof) to victory over Sicily and Divya Shakti. The erstwhile maiden recently moved house from Pune and it paid rich dividends for the connections at this centre.

Trainer Javed Khan’s Dr Doom (Perfect Stride-Top Romance) did not disappoint his backers in the Thrifty Allan Plated. Apprentice Saqlain did well to stave off Southern Lad and Big Brown in the straight after stealing a march over them at the top of the straight.