It was an amazing afternoon of racing at RCTC on Friday as two trainers and a jockey completed trebles while another lesser known rider notched up a brace – all this in a brief card of six races! However, there was no dearth of excitement - ensured by excellent handicapping and dazzling saddle artistry from jockey Imran Chisty. The class II race – the Meg Merrilies Handicap – brought visitors to the edge of their seats as three runners flashed passed the winning post locked together. The camera gave the nod to Stormy Ocean (Speaking Of Which – Sherman Oaks) from the stable of Rutherford Alford, piloted brilliantly by Chisty. With this stunning victory, Rutherford has well and truly thrown down the gauntlet to Aashay Doctor and Rajesh Narredu for the prestigiouschampion’s sash. Post-race, Chisty said the six-year-old miler loves to run off the scorching pace and move with a flourish in the straight which he did with aplomb to grab the honours in the final stride from fancied Snowpiercer. The latter was a total of 2kg out of the scale and this may very well have cost her the race. Her stablemate Aabushan is also one for the notebook. Although P Trevor has been riding out trainer Quinn’s runners to the hilt, he has not been very fortunate on them. On this day, he narrowly missed out on Casha and Aabushan.

One race earlier – in The Setaflame Cup for three-year-olds – Rutherford Alford-trained filly Keitaro (Excellent Art – Coccinella) was handled with great understanding by Chisty to sail past front-running Star Pride in the straight. The favourite Whirlwind failed to concede 5.5kg to the filly which is quite understandable. Rutherford commented post-race that the filly has been knocking and the blinkers on this day did the trick. Kudos to the trainer! The first of the Chisty-Rutherford hattrick of wins was the consistent Kay Star (Roderic O’Connor –Star Goddess) who was ridden in similar fashion to Thousand Words the day earlier. Both winners capitalised on an inside draw. However, Chisty had to work hard in the final furlong while astride Kay Star to keep at bay fast-finishing Casha. Having completed a hat-trick on this day, Imran Chisty is now only one win shy of Suraj Narredu’s 24 victories. Should they finish with an equal number of wins on the final day, Chisty holds the advantage with a greater number of second placed runners.

Trainer Vikash Jaiswal – the self-proclaimed ‘sporting trainer’ – was another who was in his glory on this afternoon, although his thunder was somewhat stolen by the dazzling Rutherford-Chisty show. Vikash was all praise for his rider Varun who notched up a brace with eight-year-old Tender Heart (David Livingston-Al Shabhabiya) and Zambezi (Fiero-Namibia). The former won the seven-furlong race for the Zelda Handicap while the latter brought the curtain down by edging out Fortune Warrior at the wire. The last named is definitely one for the notebook before season-end next week. Jaiswal’s other winner was seven-year-old Yuvi (Excellent Art-Scholastic Giant) who was piloted to victory over course favourite Lahina by apprentice Ankush in a ‘no whips’ event.