The administrators of the Hyderabad Race Club firmly believe that the show must go on, come what may. Had it not been that case, conducting the racing programme scheduled for Saturday would have not been possible. For, the club did not receive enough entries for the two trophy events – the Charminar Cup and the Totaram’s Trophy. Yet, they managed to stitch up a respectable card of seven races. They split the event for maiden juveniles into three divisions, a race for lowest class into two divisions, renamed a Class IV event as the Charminar Cup and got fresh entries for the Totaram’s Trophy, the day’s feature event and, lo and behold, the HRC had a meaningful card ready for the punters. Indeed a remarkable feat was achieved by the turf club in ensuring that Saturday’s racing went through as planned.  Nonetheless, fitness of the competing horses played a key role in the success of most of the winners during the day.
 
The framing of the Totaram’s Trophy, reserved for horses which had not finished in the first three places during this season, proved to be a blessing in disguise for the filly Reigning Beauty, owned and trained by Leo D’Silva, as also apprentice Likith Appu. The grey filly had not seen the winner’s enclosure for over a year and D’Silva had her ready for the fray against a set of rivals, which was anything but intimidating. Reigning Beauty raced in the fourth position, within striking distance of the front-running no-hopers Happy Soul, Coming Home and The Inheritor. Appu asked her for an effort as soon as the field straightened for home and the grey filly loomed large alongside the leaders. With about a furlong left for the destination to arrive, Reigning Beauty (Pinson – Beau Ideal) breezed past the amenable Coming Home and drew away for an authoritative victory. Happy Soul got the second place after a renewed effort, a neck ahead of Akshay Kumar-partnered stable-mate Terenga, who woke up only when the race was in the safe-keeping of the winner. An identical distance behind came Coming Home. Well-fancied True Icon ended up in the rut without raising any hope for his admirers. Young Likith Appu dropped his apprentice label enroute his fortieth success to reach the first milestone of his career.
 
Magan Singh Parmar saddled Amigo made light of the heavy impost he carried in the Charminar Cup and made his rivals look like pedestrians when charting the easiest win of the day. Amigo raced unconcerned behind his three main adversaries Caraxes, See My Attitude and China Town, the first-named showing the way. K. Mukesh Kumar decided that it was time to bring the curtains down on the farce as he brought Amigo into contention as they approached the final turn. Once into the straight, Amigo stepped up the pace to swoop down on Caraxes and China Town to take charge in the last two furlongs and was never in any danger of being caught thereafter. There was a yawning gap of nearly a distance between Amigo (Planetaire – Nuray) and See My Attitude, who after some hard sweating by Akshay gained the second spot ahead of the burnt out duo – China Town and Caraxes.
 
Jockey Kuldeep Singh (Sr.) had a back-to-back double at the start of the day through Annihilator and Star Cruise. The second-in-demand Shooting Star found herself in the front as none of the other horses evinced any interest in going ahead. Lady Jane showed up on Shooting Star’s outside with That’s My Mission and Annihilator in tow. Abhay Singh-piloted Shooting Star relished racing in the front and showed no signs of giving up as she frustrated That’s My Mission and appeared to be pulling it off when the Donald Netto trainee Annihilator (Gusto – Tsesebe) responded gallantly to Kuldeep’s call. The on-money favourite wore down Shooting Star close home to register a narrow win. That’s My Mission ended third ahead of Akshay-ridden Country’s Maximus who was a backmarker till the turn and warmed up late to make it to the judges’ board.
 
Kuldeep’s second winner Star Cruise shot into the lead as the gates flew open and made every post of the six furlong trip a winning one. Kuldeep kept S. Sreekanth-groomed Star Cruise (Green Coast – Exclusive Monarchy) going under the whip to ward off the serious threat posed by Tortilla Chip in the final furlong. Glimmer of Hope finished in the money ahead of Protocol. The rest were simply not interested in the proceedings.
 
Robin Reddy-saddled longshot Exclusive Black ran straight as an arrow after his master decided to race him without blinkers on this occasion, which proved to be a master stroke. Ridden by Md. Ismail, Exclusive Black (Net Whizz – Matilda) took a fluent start from the blocks and swept his rivals off their feet. Try hard as they did, none of the three fancied juveniles – Iconic Star, Ashwa Yashvir and N R I Desire could make any impression as they finished in that order behind Exclusive Black, who kicked on gamely for a comfortable win.
 
Skyward from trainer Ravinder Singh’s yard showed good improvement after her close second behind Clarity a fortnight ago when shedding her maiden status, ably assisted in the saddle by Gaurav Singh. The task of Skyward was made somewhat easy following the withdrawal of the hot favourite Jolly Jester, who escaped from the starting stalls and ran riderless till after the winning post. Akshay-steered Linda, who became the favourite by default, seized the initiative at the start with Skyward racing close on her haunches. Skyward (Tale of a Champion – Dusty Lady) sailed into the lead as Linda threw in her towel meekly at the two-furlong marker and went on to score an easy victory over hard-ridden Bellingham, who pegged back Linda for the second spot. Opera Queen ended fourth after running prominently behind the leaders all the way.
 
Sreekant achieved a double when Planet Super made amends for her previous failure against Alcahol Free, who went on to win again later. Backed to the exclusion of her rivals, apprentice Ajay Kumar-partnered Planet Super (Planetaire – Sylvette) got straight down to business from the word go and was never bothered by any of her five rivals as she bounced away to an easy victory. Dali’s Champion remained in futile chase throughout and ended second ahead of Exponent, who graced the wrong end of the field till the heads turned for home. Bien Pensant ran hopelessly throughout before finishing a poor fourth.