After the morning rain subsided, the afternoon of  racing at RCTC on Wednesday turned out to be full of thrills.The main event, the Calcutta Fillies Trial Stakes run over seven furlongs,   proved to be quite a humdinger – even after the withdrawal of the favourite Shine as she was extremely fractious in the stalls. Enola Holmes set a cracking pace till the turning for home after which all the action unfolded. Waheed-trained Merlet (Letir Mor – Merletta) shot ahead in the straight but began to drift out under the stick of jockey Mukesh Kumar. Fast finishing Antony Raj atop Morano was taken out by Merlet and the objection was inevitable. The Stipes and Stewards deliberated over the pros and cons of the very valid objection for quite some time before overruling it. The connections of Morano may consider themselves a trifle unfortunate as the verdict may have gone either way.

The man who stole the thunder on this day was the unassuming rider P Tejeshwar. He recorded a most unlikely double with the 20/1 Cool Daddy in the opener and Only Dreams in the Retort Handicap. The outsider of five in the mile race for The State Treasure Handicap, B Rajender Reddy’s Cool Daddy (Saamidd – Chemical Romance) upset form workers when he went from last to first at the top of the straight under Tejeshwar’s stick. The top-weight held on to the advantage despite being put under some pressure by the on-money public choice Global Fashion with Trevor in the saddle. The runner-up will be better off after this notable run. Tejeshwar completed his double with Aashay Doctor-trained filly Only Dreams (Dreamfield – Integrate). It was an amazing victory as she was running after a long lay-off almost nine months. All credit to her mentor and the rider who worked her regularly to peak fitness to make it happen. Kudos to them!

The Shivansh Cup saw Rutherford Alford-trained on-money favourite Sativur (Excellent Art – Forest Fairy) put his best foot forward. The chestnut gelding with Chisty astride took the bend wide as is his wont but had enough in the tank to leave the front-runners standing in the home stretch. The trainer said later that he was never worried as his ward runs best in the centre of the track.

One race earlier, Hyderabad import Arabeska (Dreamfield-Connemara) from LVR Deshmukh’s yard stamped her class on the Calcutta track when she won the 1800 metres race for The Brush Aside Handicap with a degree of comfort in the hands of Akshay Kumar. The rider commented later that he will most likely partner her in The Calcutta Monsoon Derby on the last day of the season. Front-running Galway Girl was outpaced in the final furlong.

Jockey P Trevor’s tenacity with Aashay Doctor-trained filly Sabar (Western Aristocrat-Nimfea) finally paid rich dividends as she came good in the upper division of The Dysnomia Handicap to break out of the maiden ranks. The one for the notebook is Oishika. The curtain came down as B Rajender Reddy and Vishal Bunde combined fruitfully to bring home the bacon with Trillionaire (Dali – Lost In Tought) in the lower division of the race.The public choice NRI Fantasy was never in it as the eventual winner ran his own race from pillar to post.