With 60kg on his back, trainer Aashay Doctor’s Pantazi cantered to a facile victory in the Betbricks7 Calcutta Juvenile Sprint in smart timing which pleased his mentor no end. Jockey Trevor commented after the race that the colt by Western Australia out of Waveband is cut out to be an excellent sprinter but has the class to win a mile event as well. In fact, last winter the strapping bay had bagged the Calcutta Million run over a mile – albeit by a narrow margin.

Trainer Neil Darashah hogged the limelight during the afternoon with a popular treble that elated and filled the pockets of his followers. The first of his winners was True Faith (Total Gallery – South Lake) who won the Hovercraft Handicap run over a mile without being stretched. Neeraj Rawal rode a copybook race on the winner as did Vaibhav atop runner-up Jahzara. However, the superiority of the winner left none in doubt. Both runners were available at 5/2.Neil’s next winner was the 16/10 favourite Kerry Gold (Phoenix Tower – Kerania) in the Betbricks7 Rising Stars Handicap run over five-and-half furlongs. It was a ‘No Whips’ event and jockey Arul did well to raise a late gallop out of the three-year-old filly to get the better of runaway Honey Cake who ran a fine forward race despite shouldering top-weight. The trainer stated in his post-race comments that the filly Kerrygold will be a force to reckon with in The Fillies Trial on September 3. Darashah brought the curtain down with another filly – Enola Holmes – who won the Vajra Handicap as an on-money public choice to hand Neeraj Rawal a brace. The filly by Phoenix Tower out of Tower Bridge was given a bit of a fright by top-weight Wonderful but held her own in the straight.The latter is one for the notebook.

The most spectacular finish of the day was in the seven furlong race for the Betbricks Play And Win Handicap for Class II  runners. Snowpiercer was installed as the favourite and jockey Ashhad Asbar did well to weave a passage through the eleven horse field to show the five-year-old mare daylight about a hundred metres from home . At that point of time, she did raise the hopes of her backers but was pegged back to the runner-up berth by Trevor on the 5/1 shot Main Street (Smuggler’s Cove – Mikonos)  from Arti Doctor’s yard. The four-year-old filly moved the better of the two at the wire. Last outing winner King Of Mafia ended up a close third. 

The afternoon commenced with trainer Mahesh in the winner’s circle as he led in Winsangel (Win Legend – Angel’s Glory). The mare’s odds expanded to 4/1 from 16/10 as a ton of money flowed in on NRI Fantasy who had finished dead last last time out. Imran Chisty on Winsangel made it a start-to-finish affair. He said post-race that he was wee bit worried in the closing stages of the six-furlong sprint as his mount was under pressure and she is known to be a bleeder. Mahesh too was elated with his ward’s triumph.