The Calcutta Cold Weather Season commenced on a sombre note on Thursday but ended with a majority of racegoers counting their winning chips on their way back home. A minute’s silence was observed before the start of the first race in the memory of the departed souls of racing legends S Padmanabhan and Aslam Kader who passed away earlier in the week.

The season got underway with trainer Javed Khan’s Jamaica (Roderic O’Connor – Touch My Soul) winning the curtain-raiser in great style at odds of 5/4. The trainer was understandably elated after suffering an inexplicable monsoon drought and lauded jockey Vaibhav for riding a flawless race.

The race that attracted a lot of attention was the feature event of the afternoon – The Aazish Cup. Snowpiercer was installed as the firm on-money favourite but failed to find the winner’s enclosure for the sixth time in succession. Neil Darashah-trained Natural Graceavailable at 5/2 used her 6kg pull in weights to good effect with the experienced Akshay Kumar in the saddle. The four-year-old daughter of Phoenix Tower out of Jazzy Jordan was given a regulation ride by Akshay although the filly hung in in the final furlong. Following front-running Snowpiercer till the straight, Natural Grace sailed past her when asked for an effort by her rider. The favourite lost the runner-up berth to Great Guns who made a fine run along the rails. This top-weight forward run of Snowpiercer will no doubt help her in her future efforts. As observed in her earlier runs, she appears to come to a standstill once she sees daylight and (unless the field is very weak) may need a very well-timed run in the homestretch to pull off a much-awaited victory.

Darashah completed his opening-day brace with three-year-old filly Kerry Gold (Phoenix Tower- Kerania) who edged out runaway Bundle Of Charm close home to bag The Bold Chieftan Handicap. The trainer commented later that the filly was above class but agreed that rider Arul had left it a little too late. Nevertheless, all is well that ends well. Not so for Oishika who continued to disappoint with belated efforts in the straight.

The Starry Flag Handicap run over seven furlongs saw bottom-weight Epic Play installed as the favourite. He ran a forward race but ended up a poor sixth. The race was pocketed by Rajesh Narredu-trained Dance Along (Sanus per Aquam – Dancer’s Fan)  who quite easily collared the front-runners despite her top-weight and sailed away in the hands of ace jockey Suraj Narredu. Suraj later commented that he knew she was a winner the moment he laid his eyes on her in the paddock. The mare incurred a hefty penalty of 7kg for her victory but may nevertheless win again.

The Comedy Of errors Handicap for the lowest class saw the favourite Mohsin burst his blood vessels. Vikash Jaiswal-trained Dancing Queen (Lord Admiral-Crown Vision) was guided to a regulation victory by Varun. One has to keep an eye on Soul Aquarian who is coming along quite nicelyAfter knocking on the door during the monsoon, Kay Star  (Roderic O’ Connor – Star Goddess) finally came good in the Daring Don Handicap. Imran Chisty utilised an inside draw to good effect to fetch Rutherford Alford his first winner of the season.