The gutsy African Gold in a classic duel ended the unbeaten run of the favourite boy Santissimo to emerge the champion colt. And the classy Excellent Lass bounced back from her shock defeat in her last effort to proudly wear the Fillies Championship Stakes sash. All credit to Parvati Byramji, she left no stone unturned in her endeavour to send out African Gold, spot on for the classic event. And Rajesh Narredu, it was clear had worked hard to get Excellent Lass back in the right frame of mind and more importantly in ship-shape condition for the marquee event.

The top colt from Mumbai, Santissimo from champion trainer Pesi Shroff's yard, who had remained unbeaten from his four starts including his smart victory in his maiden appearance, pitted against quality rivals at this centre was the favourite. African Gold from his two facile victories had sent out a strong message that he possessed the ability to challenge and beat the Western India raider. It was true and Parvati confirmed it, that African Gold lacked the big race experience, only two races under his belt against Santissimo,going for the big high-five. African Gold  simply had to take the bull by its horns in the bull ring and he did it in what proved to be a guts and glory exercise. Top saddle artiste Akshay Kumar uncorked a champagne effort and the bubbly, it is needless to mention kept flowing all night long, the head honcho of the famed Usha Stud Farm, Ameeta Mehra enjoying yet another classic success.

The Prasanna Kumar-trained Flight On hit the front soon after the relatively small field of half-dozen top colts came under the starter's flag for the mile long classic journey. Casteel and African Gold followed the leader, who set a decent pace all through the back-stretch before he shot his bolt at the top of the straight and at this juncture Akshay pushed African Gold ahead and the champion colt soon was challenged by Santissimo, who looked set to get past African Gold. But that didn't happen, African Gold in a never-say-die bid hanging on and producing that extra in the final furlong to join the classic brigade of Usha, while making Ameeta and Parvati proud. Mandarino from Irfan Ghatala's yard did well to finish third ahead of the badly out of gas Flight On.

Despite the fact that she was not herself in her build-up race, Excellent Lass on paper was head and shoulders above her seven rivals in the first classic of the season. The Narredu brothers, Suraj and Rajesh were confident and it was no secret that the champion lady was producing impressive performances on the trial track. Suraj too had cleared the air that all was well with Excellent Lass and that she had the best chance. The top lass  without unduly extending herself closed out the contest even before the race came on a boil and taking into account that not many quality fillies are on the circuit, Excellent Lass will add a couple more classic feathers to her hat. Magnetic from Parvati's yard followed the champion filly home ahead of Nyx, while Tesorino from Darius Byramji's stable, who had beaten stablemate Elfin Knight over an identical distance at Guindy performed like a confirmed dud finishing more than 40 lengths behind the winner. This was a shocker considering that Tesorino, twice winner, cannot be finishing so far down the field unless something had really gone wrong which led to this dismal exercise.

The two classic winners, African Gold and Excellent Lass apart, top gun Suraj Narredu made another big splash booting home four winners. After packing punch on Storm Shadow and Excellent Lass, Suraj was at his best astride Prana in the Stewards Cup run over a distance of seven furlongs. The four to one shot from Prasanna Kumar's yard thanks to the relentless effort of Suraj edged out the top fancy Galahad from the stables of Sulaiman Attaollahi  in a tight finish, And the champion `Knight' back again on the debutant Divine Art produced a copybook effort to register his fourth success, snuffing out the pillar to post attempt of Martino in the final furlong. The second favourite Helios missed the kick and with that lost all his chances to make an impression in the 1100 dash.

Among the trainers, champion Prasanna Kumar and Narayana Gowda shared the honours recording a double. The former combined successfully with Suraj to lead in Storm Shadow and Prana, while Narayana Gowda struck it rich through Indian Blues and Lauterbrunnen, winner of the concluding event, the Richelieu Plate in a pulse-pounding finish from the overwhelming favourite General Patton and the long shot Altamonte.

The Prithviraj schooled Amazing Ruler, Striking Eyes from Lokanath Gowda's yard and Akasi from the stables of Inayathullah were the three other winners in the long drawn card of 10 events, Amazing Ruler impressing most and  staking his claim for the bigger plums ahead.