It was a 50-50 case. And after a long debate in the Stewards room, the mandarins of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) closed it with a 3-2 verdict in favour of disqualification. 

The two stipes Ravishanker and Raman too recommended the same punishment and the winner Oxytocin was disqualified resulting in rankoutsider Lauterbrunnen from Narayan Gowda's yard gaining a gift race, while the hot favourite Prime Abbess from Padmanabhan's yard who suffered most, gained the runner-up berth in the Vindication Plate run over a sprint on Friday.

The big question in this Stewards enquiry was did the infringement from Oxytocin piloted by Ramu merit disqualification? Well some say that it was a good decision taking into account  that it put the favourite off stride at a crucial juncture and more importantly the decision makers wanted to send out a message loud and clear that jockeys need to maintain a straight course rather than shift in and out without really bothering about the dangers involved and the risk of bad falls in a crowded field. The others including the BTC chairman Manjunath Ramesh and Steward KA Jagadish were of the view that it was not such a bad case to take away the race from the winner, advocating that the rider should be punished and the result need not be altered. Many in the stands including a couple of old hats agreed with the BTC chief and Jagadish, while a majority of the racing pundits endorsed the opinion of the other three, who decided to disqualify Oxytocin. Well since it was a 50-50 case the railbirds took the decision in the right spirit and walked back home with a hole in the pocket, while the bookies with a spring in their stride laughed all the way to the bank. 

It was good to see the stipes and stewards going by the rule book. Rule 160 was implemented in this case, but  will it be followed now that this decision has set the trend. Well one needs to be consistent while adjudicating protests and hopefully this committee striving to offer clean and transparent racing will maintain the consistency required to earn the confidence of the racing public. Another point which escaped the attention of the racing patrons, but amused a few knowledgeable was chairman's casting vote debate. Well the casting vote only comes into play when there is a tie. In this case, the moment the first three Stewards advocated disqualification, it was over and out.
 
The fact that the chairman and Jagadish still chose to voice their opinion despite knowing that the result was established made it clear that the members of this committee are exercising their opinion without fear or favour and not falling in line and toeing the administered line. 

Coming back to racing,  champion trainer Prasanna Kumar in his effort to gun down the leader Sulaiman Attaollahi from the champion trainer race recorded a grand treble to close the gap and stay in contention for the crown. He opened his account through the on-money favourite Rock Bank, a convincing winner of the Tokino Minoru Trophy run over a distance of 2000 metres outwitting arch rival Torobravo from Irfan Ghatala's yard, fresh from his success at Guindy. In the next event, the topweighted Imperial Blue and the Prasanna-trained Vivaldo piloted by leading pro Trevor Patel topped the betting board, both camps strongly fancying their horses to bring home the Hoysala Salver. To the delight of the Prasanna camp, Vivaldo produced a sparkling gallop to seal the deal in the final furlong. Imperial Blue piloted by four-kilo claimer Pavan did produce his best, but it was clear that the Irfan ward would have gone very close had a seasoned pro would have guided his fortunes.

In line for a treble, Prasanna sent out another public rage Ravishing Beauty spot on for the Century Valentine's Million. The pipping hot favourite who ran the talented Magnetar from Aravind Ganapathy's yard in her debut was backed to the exclusion of her nine rivals in the seven furlongs plum event. But soon all the big bettors had their hearts in the mouth the moment Ravishing Beauty shifted out alarmingly and went into the sand track before the Irish pro David Allan brought the public rage back on even keel and nursed her along to join the pack at the top of the straight. David then in a never-say-die bid packed punch on the top fancy and stunned Akshay Kumar and Ashwa Kali Bhani at the post. The exemplary effort from the visiting pro was lauded by all the railbirds who provided David a standing ovation. 

Earlier, the Imtiaz Khan schooled Turkoman justified his top billing in the Vani Vilasa Sagara Plate, the opening event romping home nice and easy in the hands of apprentice jockey Siddaraju. Multisided from the stables of Darius Byramji did well to gain the runner-up berth ahead of Recreator. 

The Whisperquietly from Dominic's yard and the Joseph schooled The Strikingly opened favourites in the next event, the Bhadra Plate before the Strikingly closed firm favourite, while the price on Thewhisperquietly kept going up and up and from the whispers in the viewing gallery, it was clear that the second favourite was not seriously in the hunt . Nevertheless the `Jodi' went out of the window much to the disappointment of followers of form, rank outsider and last start winner Glow In The Dark coming up tops again. Thewhisperquietly finished second, while The Strikingly finished off the frame. 

Krystallos was one other strongly fancied contestant, who justified his rating and ranking, coming up tops in the Uttara Kannada Plate run over a mile. Trevor astride the Sulaiman trainee needed to stretch every sinew to boot home the grey. She Rules finished second ahead of Stentorian who appears to have improved and is likely to earn his winning bracket soon.