A chance ride for apprentice Tejeshwar brought rich rewards for him and his connections as he safely guided home the filly Meropi (Western Aristocrat-Panamera) to a comfortable victory over Dedicate and Grace in the seven-furlong race for The Indian Champagne Stakes – a Grade III event. After the race, a high five for the young rider from trainer Aashay Doctor said it all! Originally YS Srinath was declared to ride the filly but a fall in the stalls from a high-strung Pepper in the third race resulted in the rider being indisposed. 

Tejeshwar did not let the occasion get to him as he rode a regulation race, allowing Meropi to settle down while Dedicate set a fast pace all the way into the straight. Thereafter, the apprentice urged the filly to take over the running and she obliged her many backers without any jitters.

A sly gamble on Pepper in the Police Martyrs Cup literally fell apart when the six-year-old dark bay gelding from western India threw his rider in the stalls and had to be withdrawn as a result. This may have proved fortunate for his backers as it is most unlikely he could have got the better of the form-horse Dr Doom (Perfect Stride – Top Romance) who was receiving nearly 6kg from Pepper who closed at even-money. Dr Doom closed at 3/1 with a post-race 25 percent deduction as a result of the withdrawal of Pepper. Imran Chisty on Javed Khan-trained Dr Doom rode a perfect race as he allowed Indian Tiger and Sheer Force to cut a hot pace before he took over the running along the rails effortlessly and staved off recent winner Blue Origin without much ado.

As expected, trainer Vijay Singh’s two exceptional runners – Monteverdi and Arabian Queen – pocketed the Kolkata Mounted Police Cup and The Police Commissioner’s Cup respectively. However, neither of them had it as easy as they would have liked.  Sandesh on Monteverdi (Roderic O’Connor – Arabelle) was on a start-to-finish mission and had to resort to heavy use of the whalebone to keep at bay Mandolin and Tejeshwar. On a similar note, Suraj Narredu atop Arabian Queen (Win legend – Aymaras) had to go flat out to get the better of the runaway Silverita at the wire.

The afternoon opened with Sandesh piloting Javed Khan-trained top-weight Magneto (Kingda Ka – Solar Midnight) to a facile victory in the mile-and-half race for the Accalia Handicap. The second race of the day saw the afternoon’s biggest outsider as Vikash Jaiswal-trained Script (Whatsthescript-Sherylika) made every post a winning one in the hands of Sujit Kumar Paswan. The favourite El Patron was an utter flop while the other fancied runner Sea Dragon was a tame third. Stablemate of the winner Daddy’s Dream was a disinterested close fourth and is one for the notebook at his present mark. However, the said stable is known to make multiple entries to leave form-workers guessing.

The curtain came down with Daniel David’s Castillo (Smuggler’s Cove- Berling Sea) earning a welcome  hard-fought victory over another western India import Ahren. Jockey Nikhil Naidu astride the top-weight had to pull out all stops to gain the day.