“It’s all about placement”, said leading trainer Neil Darashah when asked why he preferred to skip a class and enter Blinky Bill in a Class II race. “I have got a lad who can do 46kg, so I knew the other serious rivals won’t be able to concede 15kg to my horse”. How right his prophecy was! Low-weight apprentice Saba made every post of the Astronomic Cup a winning to give Blinky Bill (Fiero-Danae) his fourth win of the season – all four victories were over seven furlongs. Harvestime fought a gallant battle with 61kg on his back to finish a length behind the winner and will be worth keeping an eye on.

In the very next race  - which was a ‘no whips’ affair - , apprentice Haridas Gore rode Faisal A Abbas-trained Zukor to a smashing victory over the course favourite Divine Thoughts. The latter was on a start-to-finish mission but her effort came unstuck at the distance post where the six-year-old son of Roderic O’Connor out of Queen’s Guest raised a thundering gallop to sail past his adversary. Hastings Sunrise ran on to finish third.

The bookmakers enjoyed the major share of exchanges with punters on this Tuesday afternoon at RCTC. The day started with Joseph Awale-trained Parker (One Lucky Dane-Vijaysjyothi) making the Miss X O Lence Handicap his own in the hands of jockey Vivek. Though Fancy Nancy was backed down to on-money, the public choice could only finish up a hard-ridden third. That result seemed to set the trend for the afternoon.

In the next race – the sprint for The Daring Don Handicap – Dali Swirl was installed as the totalisator favourite. He could only run a close second to My Princess from the stable of Amal Altaf Hussain. The got-abroad mare by Tamayuz out of Qawaaly was piloted by Mustakim Alamwho is known to be a hard rider. The upset of the day was to come in the next race of the day when Patrick Quinn-trained Dubai Station (Ampere-Passing Hour) moved with giant strides in the straight to edge out the favourite Felix at the wire.The victory gave jockey Shezad Khan his second win of the season. The other fancied runner – Dynamic Force – ended up third and will be worth following after this forward run.

The curtain came down with jockey Mohit Singh grabbing the opportunity of a chance ride on B Mahesh-trained Cristaldo (Win Legend – Abnoba) to make every post of the 2000 metres race for the Sholay Handicap a winning one.Fancied runner Sun God was a faraway second.