It was an afternoon when the stipes were happy to take a back seat as the thoroughbreds and professionals went about their business without too many glitches. The proceedings went as per the script for most part and punters were by and large the winners. Jockeys Christopher Alford and Kishore Kadam notched up doubles while Arjun Mangalorkar-trained Work Force lived up to expectations and mauled the opposition in the mile race for The String Of Pearls Cup. An ominous start to the day belied what lay ahead. Unfancied Badal (Storm Trooper – Stylish Beauty) won The Camlin Handicap by doing most of the running.

The six-year-old from Shafiq Khan’s yard was neglected more because of leap-year jockey Md Shabbani than anything else. Those in the know didn’t fail to have a touch on him and his odds shortened marginally. Though Generosity closed as the favourite, she never looked to be in with a chance. However, top-weight All That Jazz made a bold bid along the rails but the leeway was too much for her to cover. Outstation horses showed their prowess as Tintoretto (Storm Trooper – Aglow) set the ball rolling by winning The Pompano Handicap in a tight finish from Queen Vic. Despite the heavy impost, Kadam took the property of the Dhunjibhoys to the helm of affairs and then staved off a strong challenge from Bath’s filly.

Kadam was forced to use the stick freely to keep the threat at bay. The rest of the field were simply out-classed. The win is trainer Habbu’s maiden triumph. Work Force (Placerville – Amnesty Bay) used his lung-opener to good effect. Despite the top-weight, Christopher Alford took him to the front as the gates opened and stayed there all the way. A couple of taps in the straight was enough for the son of Placerville to stretch out well for a convincing victory. Second favourite Fascinating left all his chances at the gates while the best of the rest turned out to be Highland Prince. Pesi Shroff-trained Finfoot (Captain Rio – Shark Games) completed the hat-trick of wins by recent imports when she outclassed the field in the upper division of The President Putter’s Handicap. Much fancied Autocrat could only watch in awe as Kadam set Finfoot alight in the straight and she responded magnificently to the task at hand.

She displayed great acceleration over the five-and-half furlong sprint. Carmen (Ikhtyar – Placid) had crept quietly down the handicap ladder and it was only a matter of time when she would hoist the winning flag. Well, it turned out to be sooner than later for the Sarfaraz Khan filly. In quite a hefty coup, Carmen closed as the favourite, while the other fancied runner was Salute The Star. However, none could match the scorching pace of Carmen after Shailesh Shinde took her to the front. Triunfo opened as the piping hot on-money favourite in The Zeeba Handicap. Some smart money on Credit Squeeze (Young Senor – Annella) brought his odds down from 2/1 to 16/10 while the ante-post favourite expanded to 14/10.

Christopher Alford rode an intelligent race on Credit Squeeze in that he allowed Triunfo and Royal Dance to call the shots till the distance. After he loosened the reins on his mount, Alford was content to let the colt do all work, and how well he did it indeed. Fancied runners River Divine and Bach were also-rans in the day’s final event, The Mother’s Boy Handicap.

Black Falcon (Alnasr Alwasheek – Thanks A Lot) carried on his fine monsoon form and raced up front. He stretched out well in the straight but had to stave off a challenge from recent winner and top-weight Mirror Image. At the end of the day (pun intended) however, it was fair result as none of the other runners in the large field of 14 horses had any form to go by.