Trainer Rutherford Alford brought the curtain down in style on Friday at RCTC as his 16/10 public choice Sativur (Excellent Art – Forest Fairy) pegged back second fancied Aeropoli to the second spot after the latter had collared pacemaker Redoubtable after the turning for home and tried to run away from the field. Imran Chisty’s power-packed finish on the favourite did the trick and fetched home top honours for the Rutherford stable in the afternoon’s feature event – The Twilight Lady Handicap for horses in Class II.

Favourites tumbled in the first four races of the day as turfites burnt their fingers. Jockey P Trevor drew a blank on his first three rides of the day to finally open his account in the day’s penultimate event – The Little Lady Plate – while astride B Mahesh -trained 10-to-6-on public choice Shellacking. The colt by Sanus Per Aquam out of Cameron outclassed the field over the mile and clocked a fairly smart time.

Shafiq Khan-trained Fulcrum was prepared well enough to score after being demoted to the lowest class. The five-year-old by Roderic O’Connor out of Devoted Eyes has plenty of early speed and jockey Md Sameer did well to settle him down early before taking over the running from Kindred Spirit and Tender Heart to win well from a late finishing favourite Jean Lafette. Fancied quietly by the stable, the winner was available at 5/1. In the next race – The Young Lady Handicap – Javed Khan-trained seven-year-old gelding Tres Bien (Roderic O’Connor – Yesteryear) was expertly handled by R Vaibhav to land the spoils. The favourite Sky Hawk burst his blood vessels and ended up fourth. Absolute Lightning was a faller in the race and ended up lame.

Both Casha with Trevor atop  and Asagiri with Suraj Narredu astride were backed in the day’s third race – The Aada Rossa Handicap – but they failed to deliver. The race was bagged by four-year-old filly Mathangi (Sedgefield-Colombianaprincess) from the stable of Anil Kumar with A Ashhad Asbar astride. Casha appeared to be squeezed out at the start and never got into her stride till the race was as good as over. As for Asagiri, he may have been hindered by an outside draw.

Siblings Rajesh and Suraj Narredu maintained their lead at the helm of the trainers’ and jockeys’ championships respectively as they combined fruitfully with the light framed filly Cashalaika (Win Legend – Abnoba) to notch up her second victory on the trot. The on-money public choice  Don’tstopthemusic drifted to the outer rails as she did in her earlier outing which she won. She nevertheless finished a close third to suggest that she may yet see the winning post again this season if the stable takes the necessary measures to control her tendency to drift out after hitting the straight.