The mid-week Calcutta races on the eve of the Easter weekend turned out to be a highly eventful affair with tight finishes, a rather unusual objection and fines galore. Trainer Patrick Quinn’s Thousand Words (Arabian Gulf-Ekhabinskya)  however carried the public purse to victory without much ado in the five-and-half furlong sprint for the Dare To Dream Handicap. Jockey Imran Chisty did well to keep the five-year-old on even keel as he did show a tendency to veer out in the straight. One race earlier, Quinn and his rider Nikhil Naidu had faced the wrath of the Stipes as they were  fined Rs 15,000/- each for the indifferent handling of Time, a recent import from Mumbai.

Time was the second favourite after Free Spirited in the seven-furlong race for the Adiella Handicap. In a close contest which went all the way to the wire Shyam Habbu’s Sun God (Crimson China-Resolution) edged out Free Spirited and Swift Lady. R S Bhati rode a hard finish on the winner but subsequently tarnished his copybook with the indifferent handling of Mandolin in the race for The Wind Song Handicap. Bhati was also fined Rs 15,000/- by the Stipes. Sun God  was Bhati’s second winner of the day as he had earlier ridden Habbu’s Algoze (Shifting Power-Shades Of White) to a comfortable victory in the opener – the seven-furlong race for the Contralto Handicap.

The race that cornered all attention during the afternoon was The Kabuki Plate for three-year-olds only. Though, there were only five in the fray, it turned out be a humdinger of a race. The on-money favourite La Dominate seemed to have the six-furlong sprint in the bag after collaring front-running Jamaica but more was yet to come. Akshay Kumar atop Daniel David-trained  Twenty-Six Black (Tenth Star- Zahour Al Yasmeen) began to work on his mount from near the distance post and she responded magnificently as stretched out with all her might to win the race by a nose. Chisty on La Dominate objected for being bumped by the winner in the shadow of the winning post but the objection was rightly over-ruled as Chisty’s mount had veered out considerably more than the inward drift of Twenty-Six Black. It was quite a race that set the adrenalin flowing among the punters.

There was quite a gamble on Magic Moment in the race for The Finalist Handicap but it came unstuck as Vijay Singh-trained Island Lass (Net Whizz-Matilda) made every post a  winning one in the hands of leading apprentice Hasib Alam. Vijay Singh completed a brace as jockey Hindu Singh rode a power-packed finish atop Prosperous Prince (Net Whizz-Colour me Crazy) to peg back the favourite Banksy at the wire. Both of Vijay’s winners ran in the famed gold-and -brown colours of the late MAM, jogging many a pleasant memory for oldtimers present at the racecourse.

Trainer Suraj Shaw has made quite an impact in the latter half of the season with jockey Akshay Kumar to guide his wards. On this day too, they landed a good gamble with top-weight Mark One (Perfect Stride-Albeed) who won the Sunrise Song Handicap without giving any jitters to her backers.