After incurring a stiff 7kg penalty for his easy victory two weeks ago, the MS Parmar saddled bay three-year-old Hugh Capet (Planetaire – Win And Enjoy) it was not too heavy a burden for him to carry. Hugh Capet registered an encore by claiming the day’s feature, the Shravan Kumar Memorial Cup. Akshay Kumar was once again given the responsibility of guiding the fortunes of the bay colt on promotion and he rode Hugh Capet off the pace while Ambitious Star and Winning Streak were busy cutting each other’s throat for the lead at the start. B Nikhil ridden favourite Barbet raced behind the front-running duo till entering the straight and swooped down on them to grab the initiative. Nikhil, however, failed to drive home the advantage as Akshay brought Hugh Capet with a brilliant run on the outer flank. Barbet managed to lead for a furlong before surrendering meekly to Hugh Capet as Nikhil was unenterprising in the saddle. Barbet almost lost the second place to Fly Tothe Stars, who produced an unintentional flashy run to finish third ahead of Candy Girl. After blowing up all the fuel in their front-running attempt, Winning Streak and Ambitious Star finished down the field.

The roller coaster performance of Akshay astride fancied runners continued, however, the champion jockey lent a winning edge to his mounts on this occasion and partnered three victors other than Hugh Capet. Akshay’s success apart, the outcome of races held on Boxing Day were all in favour of punters with no nasty surprises for them during the day.

Akshay started his campaign on a winning note atop the two-year-old juvenile High Command. The LVR Deshmukh trained colt, who had an educative run on debut earlier this month, was quoted at measly odds by the bookies as he stood head and shoulders above his novice rivals in the Astonish Plate. Akshay allowed Warwick to show the way and eased High Command to range alongside Warwick after entering the home stretch. With just over a furlong left for the wire, High Command (Leitir Mor – Heiress) went surging past Warwick and sauntered home thereafter. Warwick ended second ahead of Ashwa Gajraj who just about managed to finish in the money by a whisker from Toffee.

Alabama from RH Sequeira’s stable was another hot favourite steered to victory by Akshay. Making only the third appearance of her career, the bay filly was held in restrain behind front-runners Soorya Vahan, Quality Warrior and Alpine Girl till the field turned for home. Akshay brought Alabama (Sanus Per Aquam – Amazing Charm) wide into the straight and gained the upper hand, a furlong and half away from the winning line. Acrobat meanwhile made a dash towards the inner rails but failed to catch Alabama who stretched away for a convincing win in the mile long event. Acrobat just held on to the runner up berth ahead of Queen Blossom and late finishing Golden Inzio while Soorya Vahan faded out to be a close fifth.

Akshay wound up his day at the turf astride Bangor On Dee with a hard-earned win over High Reward in the concluding event. In a dramatic start to the race, heavily-backed High Reward took a tardy start by swerving to his left with apprentice RS Jodha barely managing to settle him and showing the way to the field. Joint favourite Bangor On Dee luckily did not suffer much interference from High Reward and was soon in hot pursuit of his main adversary. High Reward veered out under pressure when Jodha changed gears and took Bangor On Dee out with him just when he was getting into his stride. Both favourites ended up wide on the track as apprentice Jodha failed to control High Reward’s drift. Akshay however persevered with L D’Silva schooled Bangor On Dee (Roderic O’ Connor – Strawberry Fields) and drove him out to overwhelm his rival in the shadow of the post. Protocol and Sorry Darling managed to take the minor places but finished faraway behind the runner up.

The only horse to fail in the hands of Akshay was Angel Tesoro, who ran far below expectations on her relegation to Class IV. K Satheesh entrusted his ward Ice Berry to 5kg-claimer Ekram Alam and the rookie justified the faith imposed by his master. Ice Berry (Corporate Jungle – Velvet Queen) hit the front after Ekram got her to skirt the front-runners soon after the start was given. After grabbing the lead a furlong from the gates, the mare entered the straight with a two-length lead and she was never seriously challenged save for a fleeting moment when Star Babe, ridden by another rookie Shivansh, inched closer in the last furlong. Ice Berry however responded gallantly to Ekram’s call and stretched out gamely to provide him his first career success. Despite Akshay going flat out, Angel Tesoro refused to put his best foot forward and end a poor fifth behind runner up Star Babe, Sucker Punch and Explosive.

The connections of Arba Waheed Arba pulled off a silent coup with the filly who had finished nowhere in her eleven starts except for ending fourth on one occasion. A flood of betting came the way of the Raza Shehzad trained Arba Waheed Arba (Smuggler’s Cove – Oceanic) and the filly was bang on target with the money wagered on her. Afroz Khan rode her off the pace as Jack Daniel called the early shots and gave Arba Waheed Arba her head in the last two furlongs. The bay filly unleashed a superb run to take out the front runners and sailed past Jack Daniel for an emphatic win. Jack Daniel finished close ahead of Ar Superior and Wot’s Up Jay.

D Netto nursed Picture Me (Smuggler’s Cove – Azarenka) justified her favouritism to register an encore in the hands of A Vikrant. Picture Me showed plenty of initial speed to dart ahead from the gates and won wire-to-wire over the six furlong trip. Doe A Deer rallied well after warming up late but Vikrant kept the pressure on Picture Me and the on-money favourite kicked on to keeping her rival at bay. Deccan Ranger was hard ridden to peg back Sporting Smile for third place.