B Rajender Reddy’s crack sprinter Black Eagle (Excellent Art-Classic Sky) turned the six furlong race for The Calcutta Champions Sprint Trophy at RCTC on Saturday into a one-horse race as he made every post a winning one effortlessly. The 8/1 shot was handled with great aplomb by Vishal Bunde who hit the front from the word go and never looked back. The seven-year-old has been maintained in great condition by Reddy and it helped him pick up the third win of the season. The favourite Meropi looked a shadow of her earlier self and was heavily under pressure to finish an unimpressive runner-up.

One race earlier, Suraj Narredu rode the second of his three winners for the day atop Vijay Singh-trained filly Shine (Dreamfild-Let There Be Light) in the supporting event – The Eastern Command Cup. The top-weight favourite tried to steal a march on his rivals but Shine was up to the task when her experienced rider asked for an effort.She collared the front-runner near the distance post. Suraj Narredu’s other winners of the day were the Neil Darashah-trained pair of Victoria Cross and Surprise Fantasy. Both runners won their respective races start-to-finish. Despite his top-weight, four-year-old dark bay colt Victoria Cross (Multitude-Victoria Falls) had no trouble whatsoever in hitting the front and staying there all the way. Resplendence finished on second from the fifth position. Though he is a natural front-runner, he was held in check on this occasion by jockey Vinay Jaiswal as instructed by the stable.

The filly Surprise Fantasy (Total Gallery-Fairy Fantasy) won the upper division of The Lt General Jameel Mahmood Memorial Cup without much ado as Suraj Narredu hit the front as the gates opened and stayed there all the way despite a fairly strong challenge from Cashmere Silk in the straight. 

Jockey Trevor Patel also completed adouble during the afternoon for trainer Aashay Doctor. The dark bay filly Righteous (Fiero- Fire of Destiny) was taken to the front early in the 2000 metres race for the Cavalry Cup and seemed to relish the middle distance trip as she stayed there all the way. After losing quite a bit of ground at the start, Born To Be Spoilt ran on to finish second and is one for the note book. In the ASC Corps Cup, Trevor had recent western India import Fable (Dreamfield – Legendofthephoenix) racing in third spot for most part of the seven-furlong race before accelerating in the home stretch to win quite easily from Anigraha. The five-year-old mare seems to have more races in store for her.

The curtain came down with Nikhil Naidu riding a forceful finish astride Rajesh Narredu-trained Most And More (Air Support-Cerise Noir) to land the spoils in the lower division of The Lt gen Jameel Mahmood Memorial Cup. Winsangel was shaping like a winner in the straight but Most And More moved with telling strides in final furlong to peg her back.