It was very comfortable and very relaxing, like taking a good nap on `Simply Sofas’. The bred in the purple colt African Gold from the stables of Parvati Byramji  detonating his 10 rivals, while making a smashing debut in the R Ramakrishnan Memorial Million sponsored by the head honcho of Simply Sofas, T Maruthi Rao, a passionate horse racing aficionado.

Immensely pleased with the success of the event, Maruthi disclosed that he was only too happy to sponsor the event in the memory of R Ramakrishnan who was a doyen in racing. “When the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) provided me the opportunity, I simply accepted and did my bit and I’m delighted that a classic hopeful provided the silver lining to the feature event,” said Maruthi.

While lauding the effort of the managing committee spearheaded by Arvind Raghavan, Maruthi pointed out that the club has done extremely well this winter roping in many good sponsors. “Back at BTC after a while, I really enjoyed and it was a good day at the races,” said Maruthi.

A delighted Parvati Byramji most satisfied with the performance of African Gold revealed that she always thought that African Gold will make the big league and after his smashing debut, Parvati is bullish of his chances  in the summer classics.

The Sulaiman Attaollahi schooled Rapidus justified favouritism in the Press Reporters Stakes. Akshay astride the public choice tracked the run-away leader Born Dancer for most part of the sprint trip before he packed punch on the favourite approaching the distance post and Rapidus responding gamely to his master’s call produced a sparkling gallop to romp home a convincing winner. Macron followed the winner home ahead of Southern Force.

 The strongly fancied Smile Of Beauty was one other public choice who proved too good, winning the upper division of the Bijapur Stakes in emphatic fashion. The promising apprentice Siddaraju pushed the Dominic ward to the front soon after the field of 11 runners came under the starter’s flag and Smile Of Beauty stayed there right till the end, pegging back the belated effort of the lesser fancied Samachar, who caught the eye while gaining the runner-up berth after losing a couple of lengths at the start. Burst Of Blaze from Pradeep Annaiah’s yard finished a creditable third ahead of Loving Pearl.

The lower division of the event was claimed by the eight to one shot Pettes Love from the stables of Neil Devaney. The winner strongly piloted by Saikumar unleashed a good turn of foot to edge out lesser fancied Fire Finch at the shadow of the winning post. The favourite My Solitaire was seen gracing the wrong end of the field, her pilot Arvind Kumar making no effort to improve his position in the sprint event and eventually finishing in the ruck.

The seven to one shot Crosswater from Arjun Manglorkar’s yard, who has improved most, came up trumps in the Maravanthe Stakes run over a distance of seven furlongs. The top fancy Anadale from Irfan Ghatala’s yard partnered by Trevor found the winner too hot to handle and had to rest content with the runner-up berth.

Arjun struck again, not with the favourite Czar, but the lesser fancied Aldgate from his yard coming up tops in the World Consumer Rights Day Stakes. Antony Raj produced a copybook race on the winner, edging out Tripitaka and Obsidian. A facile last start winner Czar performed below par much to the disappointment of his supporters who had fancied him ahead of his stablemate Aldgate.

On the strength of his suggestive effort in his last essay, Asagiri from Rajesh Narredu’s yard  rightly  garnered the maximum support in the concluding event, the upper division of the Manipal Stakes and the public choice in the hands of Trevor Patel readily justified the confidence of his supports edging out the lesser fancied Star Concept close home. Ebotse in his attempt to make every post a winning one lacked the gas in the final furlong and had to settle for the third spot.

Knotty In Blue proved too good in the lower division, detonating his 11 rivals in the hands of the in-form G Vivek. Multisided from Darius Byramji’s yard was backed to the exclusion of her 11 rivals, but the Darius ward failed in her attempt to keep pace with the race and finished down the field much to the chagrin of her large following.