The season’s last and longest classic – The JSK1 Calcutta St Leger run over 2800 metres – saw Aashay Doctor-trained Nomitsi  (Dreamfield-Actual) steamroll the opposition in the safe hands of Britisher David Allan. The bay colt jumped out well and followed front-running Lady Sunshine till the turning for home where he took over the running and won as he liked by over seven long lengths from the track favourite Rise And Reign. Lady Sunshine burst her blood vessels and ended up a trailed off last. My sympathies are with the ‘Lady’ who was made to run the Oaks, The Derby (where she ran her heart out) and The Leger within a space of two months. In the humble opinion of this correspondent, the pretty grey filly is best suited over a mile – to a mile-and-quarter at most. Jockey David Allan said post-race that he just followed instructions – sat behind the  pace-setter and made his move near the 600m marker. The colt did the rest with a couple of reminders.

The supporting event – The Governor’s Cup – saw trainer Rajender Reddy’s Vincent Van Gogh (Multidimensional -Irises) complete a hat-trick of wins when he lifted the Governor’s Cup start-to-finish. Jockey Vishal Bunde took no chances in the small field of four and let the six-year-old run his own race. He won by over a length from the course favourite A Star Is Born in excellent timing. One race earlier – in the JSK1 Grand Annual Mile – Rajesh Narredu-trained filly Eleanora (Letir Mor-Nora) with Suraj Narredu in the saddle, made every post a winning one to give the Narredu pair their second win of the day.Earlier, the Narredus had tasted victory in the Voltige Handicap when Suraj rode a measured race on Super Sapphire (Excellent Art-Sapphirine) to sail past front-running Sabar who put up an improved performance on this occasion and seems to have come to hand. The winner had been gelded a couple of months back and this had undoubtedly helped his cause said his trainer.

Trainer Bharath Singh’s Norwegian Wood (Win legend-Woodberg) was handled expertly by ace jockey Trevor to the land the spoils in the JSK1 Sports Book Plate. Permitting Xtravagant Star to call the early shots, Trevor took over the running in the straight and staved off a strong challenge from Clever Hans. The latter has had two eye-catching runs and should strike before the season gets over in the first week of April.

Jockey Varun on Vikash Jaiswal-trained Sporting Trainer (Chinese Whisper – Mount Rushmore) did extremely well to get the better of the course favourite I Smell The Danger in the seven-furlong race for The Belligerent Handicap. After switching the six--year-old to the outside in the straight, the jockey used the stick freely to get him into top gear and pull off a well-deserved triumph. The curtain came down on an entertaining afternoon of racing with Javed Khan-trained Toussaint (Burratino – Kay Es Jay) winning the 2000 metres race for the JSK1 best Winner Market Plate in the hands of R Vaibhav.

So it’s off to Chennai for The Invitation Cup weekend where the fortunes of local owners and their wards will be followed closely by railbirds at the RCTC ISBO. Horses like last year’s Sprinters Cup winner Time And Tide, Ramiel and Dubai Princess will surely find quite a few backers in the Calcutta ring. It will be back to business as usual on Thursday at RCTC. Till then -Adios Amigos!