The sparingly raced filly Beauty Blaze marked her return to the winner’s enclosure with an authoritative win in the first division of the B Vijay Reddy Memorial Cup. Turned over to another former jockey Neelesh Rawal for training after her initial schooling with Ravinder Singh till her last run, Beauty Blaze (Top Class – Lucy In The Sky) was making her first appearance after nearly three months. Entrusted to apprentice Santosh Raj, who has been her regular work recently, Beauty Blaze reappeared on the tracks to display her sprinting prowess.

The Thunder stormed into the lead from the gates and was chased by Maximum Glamour and Beauty Blaze, who came from the wide draw to settle third. Ajeeth Kumar partnered Maximum Glamour, who was given a controversial ride by Deepak Singh earlier, pounced upon The Thunder in the final furlong and half but soon found Beauty Blaze ranging alongside. The bay filly showed no signs of rustiness as she wore down Maximum Glamour, a seasoned campaigner. The on-money favourite then sped away for a comfortable victory over Maximum Glamour who was not disgraced considering that she was conceding weight to her younger rival. Angel Tesoro ran on when it least mattered but nosed out The Thunder for the third slot. Top-weighted Carlisle, the second-in-demand piloted by Akshay Kumar, ran hopelessly throughout and faded away after being prominent till entering the straight. Top Diamond ran fifth and could do well in his own age group when placed in strong hands.

Akshay had earlier achieved a back to back double through Salisbury and True Marshall, who were both available at cramped odds in the betting ring. Before his dual success, Akshay had given a flop show astride two equally fancied runners, Rising Tycoon and Golden Inzio. True Marshall (Roderic O’Connor – Lombardia) was backed as if defeat was out of question in second division of B Vijay Reddy Memorial Cup and the Srinivas Reddy groomed gelding justified the market’s faith in his worthiness. The bay gelding joined the front-runners Hard To Toss and Garnet shortly after the start and gained the upper hand over Garnet, who flattered briefly in the straight after tackling Hard To Toss. Bangor On Dee meanwhile was a victim to the poor judgement shown by Sk. Rafique in changing lanes when he was well poised to launch his assault. He decided to take the shortest route but found the gap closing on Bangor On Dee and was forced to make his bid from the outer flank. Leo D’Silva’s ward ended second ahead of Garnet and Briar Ridge, who ran on leisurely.

D’Silva however hogged the limelight by saddling four winners including Salisbury, who provided Akshay his first winner of the day. Salisbury (Multidimensional – Ice Beauty), who was seen knocking at doors of success this season, faced a mediocre lot this time hence and no wonder the punters were gung ho about his chances. Salisbury raced third behind Precious Gift and Mr Perfect before making gradual progress as the field approached the final turn. Salisbury faced no resistance from either Mr Perfect or Precious Gift as he cruised past them one by one and romped home for an easy win. Explosive ran on to finish second ahead of Power Ranger and a short-head away was Lady Danger, who probably sensed that she was not expected to be in the limelight on this occasion.

Jockey Afroz Khan had a rare treble thanks to D’Silva’s faith in him and his riding ability. Afroz tasted his first success atop the debutant filly Kenaf who shocked her eight juvenile rivals over the five and half furlong scurry. The bay Kenaf (Dali – Dailaah) ran like a scalded cat from the barriers to make every post a winning one in the hands of Afroz. The rest of the field was left fighting for the crumbs and Happy Soul, who was in futile chase throughout, ended second, Akshay piloted favourite Rising Tycoon, who finished on to be a poor third, never seemed to be in the hunt and flopped second time in a row. Clare ran a fair fourth.

Later, Miss Marvellous’s triumph displayed Afroz’s confidence and resolve in the saddle as the aged mare outwitted favourite Despang close home. Despang got straight down to business from the word go and appeared to be in sight of another success in the last furlong when Afroz got Miss Marvellous to unleash a brilliant run down the straight. Miss Marvellous swooped down on the leader to win by a head. Southern Act came with a flashing run but ended third ahead of Sun Dancer, who was not given a punishing run. Bandit King could have done better with a stronger rider on board.

Royal Star lived up to the promise shown in his previous essay when he ended runner up to Ice Berry and provided the proverbial icing on the cake for both D’Silva and Afroz. Ante post favourite Vision Of Rose, whose odds drifted in the betting ring as Big Boy attracted majority supported, made the initial running followed by Fatuma and Gusty Note but retreated without any fuss allowing Fatuma to grab the lead. Afroz meanwhile set alight Royal Star (Total Gallery – Lavender Blue) when the field had straightened for home and got a fabulous response from his mount. Royal Star came with a devouring run to frustrate Fatuma near the post. Unmatched ended in the money ahead of Big Boy, who was given too much to do in the home stretch.

K Satheesh trained Royal Pal made amends for his last outing failure to claim the day’s curtain raiser. Ridden by apprentice RS Jodha, Royal Pal (Speaking Of Which – Violet Honey) came with raking strides in the straight to halt the winning run of the D’Silva trainee Silver Lining, who was taken on a pillar to post mission by novice Ekram Alam. Track Blazer showed some zest for racing when finishing a close third and is worth following in his future endeavours. It’s My Life ended fourth with the undeserving favourite Jack Daniel close behind.

Apprentice Shivansh earned the first winner of his career when he guided the longshot Alpine Girl to an upset victory. Shivansh nearly made a hash of it when throwing his challenge at My Marvel and Keep Faith in the straight. Alpine Girl stumbled when switching lanes and the rookie almost lost his left rein in the process. However both Alpine Girl (Sedgefield – Pickwick Papers) and Shivansh recovered and the Jasbir Singh saddled filly stretched out for an emphatic win. Keep Faith ended third and was followed by the Akshay-ridden hot favourite Golden Inzio, who plodded to be fourth.