The opening day of the Calcutta Monsoon meeting proved to be both entertaining and fruitful for followers of money. Turfites were treated to some fairly competitive racing with favourites triumphing in several events. The main event – the betindiaraces.com Cup – saw the 2/1 public choice Delphini (Bated Breath-Performer) from the stable of Aashay Doctor get the better of Monfortino and Full Volume with a degree of comfort. It was “third time lucky” for jockey Akshay Kumar after two narrow failures on Twenty-Six Black and La Dominate. It will be worth keeping an eye  on both his losing mounts.  Coming back to the feature event, Akshay rode a copybook race as he allowed Monfortino to set a cracking pace while he sat four lengths behind and bottom-weight Full Volume a further two lengths behind him. Into the straight, Akshay put Delphini into top gear and she won comfortably from Monfortino who held on to the runner-up berth edging out Full Volume to third. Another one for the notebook is recent import Siege Perilous who was given an airing, possibly in preparation for a longer trip – could be the Arktouros Cup a fortnight later.

Brothers Rajesh and Suraj Narredu combined with telling effect to complete a double with the Poonawalla owned pair of Galaticus and Good Tip. The former – a Roderic Oconnor filly out of Mine Forever was hard ridden to get the better of La Dominate near the winning post in The Replicate Handicap. After a tardy getaway, the latter had stolen a march in the straight – only to succumb to a fitter animal in the final 50 metres. On-money favourite Good Tip (Roderic Oconnor-Mahaleji) collared runaway Nautica near the distance post to post a comfortable victory in The Hall Of Glory Handicap and bring the curtain down to the day’s proceedings on a joyous note.

Jockey Arman Khan, who is known to spring a surprise every now and then, was actually backed quite confidently by the Sabeel Shariff stable to land the spoils with Lion Queen in the curtain-raiser of the season. The five-year-old mare by Phoenix Tower out of Sempre Lista won fairly easily and will be worth keeping an eye on in the upper class. Trainer Neil Darashah was not to be left out of the honours list on day one as his filly Sea Eagle (Phoenix Tower-Tropical Blue) won the Dominate Handicap from Twenty-Six Black easier than the verdict of three parts of a length. After gracing the wrong end of the six-horse field for most part, jockey Zervan set her alight in the straight to peg back Twenty-Six Black close home.

Yet another member of the fairer sex – Dance Along (Sanus per Aquam-Dancer’s Fan) - won the Echoes Of Light Plate for three-year-olds from Tropical Lady who made a futile late bid to get on par with the LVR Deshmukh ward. The latter – a leading trainer at Hyderabad -  had recently acquired the filly who was ridden with confidence by Antony Raj. Deshmukh was not present to lead in the filly but there’s no doubt that more will be heard of him as the season unfolds.