The aura of invincibility the grey mare Juliette has wrapped herself with has been scaring away the opposition as such Sunday's feature event, the Fillies' & Mares' Stakes (Gr.3), was reduced to a one-horse affair. The presence of Juliette’s stable-mate Daianne and West Brook in the fray ensured that the event was not declared as a walk-over and both of them were well-compensated for their bravado. If not a walk-over, winning the Fillies’ & Mares’ Stakes for the second successive year was certainly a walk in the park for Karthik Ganapathy’s star performer. The nine furlongs that she conquered on this occasion wasn’t sufficient ground for her to warm up and it was no surprise that Juliette won without raising a sweat. Daianne set the early pace with West Brook and Juliette racing behind till the final turn where Akshay brought West Brook abreast of the leader and CS Jodha too relaxing his grip on the mare’s reins. West Brook showed up first in the home stretch but in a matter of seconds Juliette (Musketeer – Gimmesumsugar) joined and whizzed past the filly to leave her two rivals stranded. The Zavaray S. Poonawalla family, the proud owners of Juliette, remained non-committal about her future as to whether they still have plans to race her in Dubai or retire her to stud. 
 
Before leading Juliette to the winner’s enclosure, Karthik warmed himself up with two back-to-back winners in Azrinaz and Lord Vader. Like Juliette, Azrinaz was making her first appearance after her previous success during summer at Mumbai yet she was sharp as ever when taking on the fancied duo – Decacorn and Art Collector. Prashant Dhebe took Decacorn on a start-to-finish mission and had Esperanza for company till after entering the straight. Soon Decacorn wrest the lead and as Malet Spring and Supreme Spirit were both unable to collar him, it seemed that the favourite would oblige. But A. Sandesh had other ideas. He brought Azrinaz (Roderic O’Connor – Maleficent) wide off the field and triggered a brilliant response from the filly. The speedy response from Azrinaz was too hot for Decacorn to handle as he was forced into submission in the last half furlong. Superlative ended in the money ahead of Supreme Spirit. Trevor Patel-ridden Art Collector seemed to be out of sorts as he never raised the gallop expected from him by his connections as well as the punters and finished off the board.
 
The upper division of the Yogender Singh Trophy, instituted in the memory of the talented young jockey who met a tragic end on his birthday on the Pune racetrack two decades ago, was claimed by Lord Vader in virtually his last stride. Six-year old Lord Vader raced in the vanguard alongside favourite Superimpose, Jetfire and Redouble till they all entered the final run-in. Just as Superimpose and Jetfire were disputing the issue in the last furlong, apprentice S. Siddharth-partnered Jet Typhoon slipped through the shortest way home and was being hailed as a winner after shrugging off Redouble. However, Lord Vader (Be Safe – Copper Bracelet) had not given up and his late burst caught Jet Typhoon on the post as he went on to win by the proverbial whisker and taste success after an agonising wait of two and half years. Redouble ended a game third, half-length behind. Northern Singer ran on to be fourth, a nose ahead of Superimpose. There could not have been a fitting tribute to the memory of Yogender Singh as the first and second placed horses were both ridden by the recently licensed apprentice riders – S. Siddharth and Bharath Singh, the latter tasting success in his very first riding assignment. Siddharth had made his debut on Sunday last and Jet Typhoon was the second ride of his career.
 
The lower division of the Yogender Singh Trophy also witnessed a close finish between Gypsy Soul and Mojo at the start of the day’s proceedings. Crowd favourite Gypsy Soul received a confident ride from young G. Santosh, who has been attached to Adhirajsingh Jodha’s yard since the last five years and the rides and winners for whom have been few and far between. Regardless, Santosh astride Gypsy Soul (Ivory Touch – Lantana Lady) wisely decided not to cut pace with Storm Cloud, who came with a speedy burst from the widest draw to lead the field of eleven. Santosh got busy only after the field had straightened for home and started to wear down Storm Cloud. No sooner had Gypsy Soul tackled the leader, she faced the spirited attack of Amyn Merchant-piloted Mojo. But the resilience shown by Santosh enabled Gypsy Soul to survive by a short-neck and achieve an encore. Storm Cloud and Fidato followed them home. 
 
G. Vivek-steered favourite Mumtaz decided to make a start-to-finish dash for the October Handicap and led the field of juvenile fillies with no-hopers Purple Martini and Scarlet Sensation in close attendance. Sandesh, meanwhile, had Zendaya racing comfortably in the fourth spot. Mumtaz picked up pace in the straight but was engaged in a fierce duel by Zendaya at the two-furlong marker. Vivek went flat-out aboard Mumtaz and so did Sandesh atop Zendaya. Sanjay Kolse-schooled Zendaya (Excellent Art – Flaming Glory), however, proved to be stronger of the two as she swooped down on Mumtaz towards the fag end of the six furlong sprint and triumphed by a length and quarter. S. Saqlain had a tough time settling Thalassa in the initial stages of the race but the filly came charging towards the end to finish a short-head behind Mumtaz. Ashwa Kangto (earlier named Touch of Gold) ran green before finishing fourth.
 
An hour later, Vivek avenged his defeat after outwitting Sandesh aboard Earth and guiding Pesi Shroff-trained Celestial towards his maiden win in the Nana Raghunath Trophy. Earth and Celestial went stride for stride soon after the start before the former gained a slight advantage over her rival in the home stretch. Vivek was relentless astride Celestial in the entire home stretch and gained the upper hand in the last few metres of the race enroute a brilliant win by three parts of a length. The General went in pursuit of the pair ahead in the straight but could only finish third while Ghirardelli came very wide into the straight and ran fourth after being hard-ridden by CS Jodha.
 
Shroff missed out on a double as Saqlain-partnered Constable caught a tartar in owner-mate Waikiki from M. K. Jadhav’s yard. Constable and Waikiki chased bottom-weighted Mysteriousstranger soon after the nine-furlong event was flagged off with the former taking charge just before turning for home. Saqlain applied enough pressure to get Constable to sustain his lead but eventually succumbed to the aggression of Nikhil Parmar-ridden Waikiki (Leitir Mor – Mauna Kea), who went on to score a convincing victory by over two lengths. Zarak, Booster Shot and Eaton Square finished in huddle in that order for the minor places.
 
Earlier in the day, Sandesh registered his first win when partnering the Narendra Lagad trainee Leo the Lion for a comfortable win over the mile and quarter journey for the Capriole Plate. Yawar called the early shots with stable-mates Yuletide and favourite Leo the Lion in tow and threw in his towel well before the final turn. Sandesh then spurred Leo the Lion (Ampere – Cogito Ergo Sum) into the lead and the favourite then stretched out for an easy victory over Toofan, Yuletide and Spiritual Rock.