Miracles do happen – especially to good people! An amazing high-priced treble by jockey R Vaibhav on Thursday was the highlight of the afternoon though it left several punters with holes in their pockets. With a strike rate of one win in 42 rides during the last monsoon meeting, even the rider himself would not have imagined such an occurrence in his wildest dreams! The beneficiaries of his stunning performance were trainers Bharath Singh and Rutherford Alford, both of whom secured doubles during the afternoon. Vaibhav’s winners for the day were Eagles Flight (10/1), Multistarrer (12/1) and Norwegian Wood (8/1). This superb showing should prove to be a shot in the arm to this otherwise none-too-successful jockey and we hope to see more of him in the winner’s enclosure during the course of the long-drawn winter meeting.

The afternoon’s feature event – The Delhi Race Club Cup – saw trainer Patrick Quinn’s Chopin (Ampere –Northern Melody), carrying a heavy impost of 62kg, given a brilliant ride by jockey Sandesh to land the spoils. Tracking front-running second-favourite Golden Kingdomtill the turning for home, Sandesh cleverly slipped his mount along the rails and finally held on by half-a-length from Stockbridge. The jockey said later that ‘I know the front-runner drifts out so I waited for such a moment’ – astute thinking indeed!

Another good ride by a top jockey was astride the four-year-old gelding Australia (Knight’s Tour-Sunflower) who moved with telling strides in the final furlong to get the better of All Time Legend at the winning post. The winner is trained by Rajesh Narredu and was piloted by SurajNarredu. Suraj had to pull out all stops in the straight to get his mount into top-gear; ‘he was race-rusty’ said Surajafter the race  but was never the less pleased with his performance. A word of praise for the narrow loser All Time Legend who has improved considerably under Rutherford Alford.

The afternoon commenced with Vaibhav guiding home Bharath Singh-trained Eagles Flight (Tenth Star – Tsesebe) to a start-to-finish victory in the 1100 metres sprint for the Pentire Handicap. The top-weight drifted out in the straight but held on well from the favourite Tres Bien. The other fancied runner Honey Cake was outpaced by the winner and may have needed the run. Vaibhav’s next success story was atop Rutherford Alford-trained seven-year-old Multistarrer (Multidimensional – Glorious Colours) in the ‘no whips’ race for the upper division of the Hartnell Handicap. The aged gelding came with raking strides in the final furlong to edge out Flamingo Road close home. Bharath Singh-trained Norwegian Wood (Win legend-Woodberg) sealed Vaibhav’s treble in the last race of the day. The dark bay filly made every post a winning one in the mile race for The Colonial Handicap, keeping at bay the half-money favourite Mysterious Stranger. Bharath said after the race that his filly had put on a ‘lot of condition’ after the monsoon.

Jockey Imran Chisty was at his best to guide home the much neglected Xtravagant Star (Air Support – African Sky) to half-a-length triumph over course favourite My Princess in the sprint for The Allodium Handicap. The lower division of the race for the Hartnell Handicap saw the withdrawal of the unruly favourite Menjou’s Moustache. The race was picked up by Mahesh-trained Marcolini in the hands of PS Kaviraj.