It was a Thursday afternoon at RCTC when the lesser names among the professionals dominated the show. Among them was first time winner – apprentice Sonu Mishra. Trainer Patrick Quinn deserves a pat on the back forhavingthe guts to gamble with an apprentice without a single winner atop a runner who was having the first start of her career – Don’t Stop The Music (Sanus Per Aquaam – Songlark). It was an amazing feat that caught punters and analysts on the wrong foot though the filly was indeed burning the track. Well done Patrick!

Jockeys R Vaibhav and Vishal Bunde showed considerable maturity to notch up well-deserved doubles. Vaibhav guided home the course favourite Whirlwind (Win Legend – Wind Of Soul) from the stable of Sanjay Kolse to a comfortable victory over Simran’s Star who gave her a fairly tough fight in the straight. Vaibhav said after the race that the winning filly behaved excellently as she settled behind the front-running Simran’s Star without a problem and took over the running in the straight with a couple of reminders. Second placed Simran’s Star has displayed amazing consistency and cannot be ignored whenever she runs. Owner of Whirlwind – Vikram Bachhawat – said that this victory meant a lot to him and added that Time And Tide, who won the Sprinters Cup at Chennai last Saturday is his favourite horse. He hopes to win next year’s Sprinters Cup with him to make it a hat-trick. Good luck to him and his team!

One race earlier, in The Tubal Cain Handicap, Vaibhav pulled off a hard-fought victory atop Bharath Singh-trained Dona Sienna (Speaking Of Which – La Dona) who edged out Light The World at the wire by a nose. Owner Joydeep Datta Gupta said post-race that he was indeed happy to win this race and even happier that he is now the proud owner of the best stayer in the country – Ramiel!

Another professional – Vishal Bunde –delighted his fans with a well-earned double. The first of his winners was bottom-weighted Natural Grace (Phoenix Tower – Jazzy Jordan) who bagged the JSK1 Play Big Win Bigger Plate run over a mile, staving off the challenge of late finishing Sativur quite easily. Trainer Neil Darashah was elated with the return-to-form of his highly rated filly on whom he had to make a few ‘adjustments’ as he put it – one of them being blinkers.

Vishal Bunde brought the curtain down in a No-Whips Race with a start-to-finish victory atop Raissa (Roderic O’Connor -Intuition) from the Sabeel Shariff yard. The trainer commented after the race that it was much needed ‘oxygen’ for him as it was only his second winner of the season. Trainer Rutherford Alford’s Banduk Wali (Excellent Art- Skyelady) was ridden to a  power-packed finish by Imran Chisty to pocket The El Obro Handicap from the favourite Sky Hawk.Rutherford said later that the blinkers helped her causeas earlier she had a tendency to loaf once she hit the front.