Despite his ward’s debacle in the Stayers Cup, trainer S Sreekanth and his connections made their trip to Calcutta worthwhile by picking up the 55 Exch Calcutta St Leger effortlessly with their grey gelding Truth at RCTC on Wednesday. Jockey Imran Chisty enjoyed an armchair ride atop the four-year-old by Pinson out of Lady Be Good as he stretched his winning verdict to a good 20 lengths or more overPower Racer who was incidentally rated 61 points below him. The connections of Truth paid a hefty final entry fee of Rs 3.37lakh but pocketed a winner’s purse of almost Rs 14.5 lakh – making the effort highly rewarding. In his post-race comments Sreekanth thanked his friend Rutherford for this bright idea.

Sharing the limelight with Sreekanth was trainer B Mahesh who lifted the Governor’s Cup with his six-year-old Siege Perilous(One Lucky Dane – Le Louvre) who was given a great ride by Vivek G. The favourite Destroyer showed the way till near the distance post and folded up thereafter. Vivek shot Siege Perilous ahead at that juncture but had to stave off a strong challenge from Iron Clad at the winning post. Mahesh was delighted after the race and said that it was a pre-planned coup, and that he was extremely happy that it paid off. The win completed a double for jockey Vivek G as he had guided home Aashay Doctor’s Zucardi (Top Class – Allee Bleue) to a narrow victory over All Time Legend in the curtain raiser – The 55 Exch Sprint.

Bharath Singh-trained Sea Salt Caramel (Surfrider-Salt) was backed to the exclusion of all others in the five-and-half furlong race for The 55 Exch Cup. With Trevor in the saddle, the filly had little to no trouble in collaring the front runner – Hand Of God. She eventually won by three lengths. The one for the notebook is Bibury who was being quietly fancied by the stable but lost some ground at the start and yet finished a good third.

The upper and lower divisions of the two ‘No Whips’ races were next on the afternoon’s proceedings. The upper division off the seven-furlong race for the 55 Exch Online Gaming Plate saw Neil Darashah-trained Blinky Bill (Fiero-Danae) complete a hat-trick at this centre. Young apprentice Saba from western India overcame an outside draw in a large field of 14 runners to lead all the way and win convincingly from Kindred Spirit. The others were never in it. The lower division saw another apprentice – young Abdul Fazal from Delhi – land the spoils in a thrilling finish atop Daniel David-trained Dubai Star (Win Legend – Woodberg). He edged out the favourite Fancy Nancy at the wire. It was encouraging to see apprentices in the forefront of these ‘no whips’ races.

The curtain came down with Warren Singh – trained Shubhankar (Pinson – Tinkerbell) making the 55 Exch Mile a start-to-finish affair by over six lengths from a floundering Tiger Mountain. Jockey PS Chouhan did the honours.