Two years after she started her second streak of nine victories, the grey mare Juliette faltered in her attempt to make it ten in a row as she failed to produce her blistering run in the Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia Trophy (Gr.3), Sunday’s feature event. Juliette’s nemesis on this occasion was Geographique, the five-year old mare mentored by veteran Imtiaz Sait. Geographique, in a way, also proved that her previous defeat at the hands of Zuccaro over the mile trip was an aberration as her conqueror was another scalp of hers apart from Juliette. When the starter flagged off the nine-furlong race, Sentinel expectedly hit the front with Neeraj Rawal settling Geographique close behind. Dyf raced in the third position while the fancied duo – Zuccaro and Juliette raced in the rear. The order of running remained unaltered till Sentinel surrendered her lead without much ado to Geographique after the field swung into the home stretch. Geographique (Golden Horn –Island Dream) then stole a march over her rivals and took some backhanders from Neeraj before sashaying in front for a brilliant victory. Juliette came very wide into the straight and her trademark blazing run seemed to have deserted her as she veered out under pressure. The spectators who anticipated her to romp home fell silent after Juliette failed to make it to the judges’ board for the first time after missing it on debut six years ago. Dyf could only improve to chase the winner and took the runner-up berth ahead of Once You Go Black and Zuccaro, who too failed to display his brilliance and ended fourth.

Sait had a dream run on the turf during the day as he had already led in two winners – Dream Alliance and Endurance, at the start of the day. CS Jodha-partnered Dream Alliance fought for his head with his rider for a while before settling behind no-hoper Alpine Star and snatched the lead from the tiring leader soon after the field straightened for home. Dream Alliance (Planetaire – Shaktiroop) clearly relished the mile and half trip and won the PR Mehta Salver quite easily. Three-year old Arkadian, who had graduated from the maiden ranks by winning the Deccan Derby at Hyderabad in October last, went out as the favourite against his four seasoned rivals only to find the going tough against them, especially the winner.  Despite Trevor’s vigorous effort, Arkadian could not threaten the winner’s supremacy in the final stages of the race and had to settle for the second place. Ironically, Dream Alliance also had only one career success to his credit but his experience stood him in good stead against Arkadian. Alpine Star and Exuma took the other two minor places on the judges’ board.

The Jayaramdas Patel Gold Trophy was also run over the Derby trip and in the fray was a field of five out of which four contestants were more or less equally fancied in the betting ring. Tiepolo from Shroff’s yard adopted runaway tactics and hit the front with stablemate Gordon, Caliph, Endurance and Uzi racing behind in a single file. R. Ajinkya atop Gordon challenged Tiepolo as soon as they reached the two-furlong marker but his rival was unyielding. Meanwhile, Neeraj set Endurance in motion and ranged alongside the duo ahead. With a furlong left for home, Endurance (Speaking of Which – Supreme Princess) swooped down on his rivals and drew away under pressure for a convincing win. Hard-ridden Gordon finally managed to overcome Tiepolo’s resistance when taking the second berth while Caliph finished fourth.

Trevor followed up his treble on Friday with a well-earned and well-deserved double aboard Chagall and Cinderella’s Dream. He got the day’s first winner in the first race when Chagall nailed Bashir on the post. Bashir chased leader Lord and Master into the straight where A. Sandesh changed gears to assume command. Pride Prince also showed urgency and went in hot pursuit of Bashir but, meanwhile, favourite Chagall thundered on to the scene. Shroff’s ward, who was ridden off the pace and graced the wrong end of the field till Trevor switched lanes on reaching the final turn, put in a resolute bid to gain ground with each stride and quelled Bashir’s tenacity. Chagall (Cougar Mountain – Heather) snatched a nose verdict over Bashir in virtually the last stride. Pride Prince ended third ahead of Phenom.

Trevor again came up trumps against Sandesh in an identical fashion later in day when he claimed the Kheem Singh Salver through Cinderella’s Dream. Sandesh did all the hard work atop Aafreen as he took charge of the running soon after the gates flew open and was a winner at every stage of the six-furlong journey except at the most important juncture: the winning post. Trevor started to scrub the Faisal Abbas trainee in the final run-in and inched closer to Aafreen and Ocean in the last furlong. It appeared for a fleeting moment that Aafreen had reached the safety zone but Cinderella’s Dream (Surfrider – Cracklin’ Rosie) last surge stunned the former by a neck in the shadow of the winning post. Ocean finished a game third whilst Storm, despite a rough passage, ran on to be fourth and should not linger in the maiden ranks for long. Paladin ran green before finishing sixth, a neck behind Applause, who should improve on this run soon.

Malesh Narredu-saddled Gunsmoke made a stylish debut in the Gracias Saldhana Million, the last event for two-year old juveniles before they turn three two days later. Gunsmoke raced well up behind leader Whirlwind till entering the home stretch where Yash Narredu asked his mount for an effort. Gunsmoke (Havana Gold – Belliflore) soon pounced upon Whirlwind to gain the upper hand and kept going under the whip to make a winning debut. Diego Garcia and Superstar both tried to intimidate Gunsmoke in the final stage but the winner proved too good for them on this occasion. Juracan ran on to be fourth whilst Zacharias, after gracing the wrong end of the field till the final bend, made good progress in the straight to finish fifth.

Five-year old Divine Intuition from Aman Hussain’s string justified the favouritism in the last race of the day. Top-weighted Divine Intuition showed no signs of rustiness despite running after a long layoff as he tracked leader Untitled from the word go. TS Jodha-ridden Divine Intuition (Roderic O’Connor – Intuition) wore down Untitled inside the last furlong and half to grab the lead and sailed away for a comfortable win over late-finishing Adonis, who pegged back Untitled for the third spot whilst Lyoz Chanette took the fourth berth.