A brilliant effort from jockey David Allan helped favourite Miss American Pie claim the Mulraj Goculdas Trophy by a proverbial whisker on Sunday when the Englishman hogged the limelight by steering a popular treble. Mansingh Jadhav-nursed Miss American Pie was carrying 62kg on her back, yet the betting market preferred her chances in the field of seven. Divine Star exploited his initial speed to take charge of the running after the field came out of the gates for the six-furlong sprint with Turn And Burn and Dream Seller giving the initial chase whilst Miss American Pie lay in wait behind them. Dream Seller, when alerted by apprentice Ramswarup, charged at Divine Star after the heads turned for home and managed to gain a slender lead. Meanwhile, Allan had got Miss American Pie into her stride and the mare stepped up the pace to collar Dream Seller inside the last hundred metres.  But before she could steal a march over her rivals, Market King had made steady progress in the straight to throw a strong challenge at the favourite. However, Allan kept up the pressure and spurred Miss American Pie (Gleneagles – Reine Australe) to evade Market King’s assault and hit the wire before the latter could play spoilsport. Son Of A Gun, Irish Gold and Dream Seller finished in that order to take the minor places.
 
Half an hour later, Allan wore the same colours in the Jayaramdas Patel Gold Trophy and tried runaway tactics astride Exuma, who dictated the terms over the mile and quarter trip but started to lose steam close home. Exuma shrugged off Black Thunder at the turn but found favourite Endurance arriving with a fluent gallop to run him down in the last furlong and half. Yash Narredu-piloted Endurance (Speaking of Which – Supreme Princess) from Imtiaz Sait’s yards stretched out well to record a comfortable win over Exuma, who held on from joint-favourite Break Point to keep the runner-up slot. Black Thunder ran below expectations and faded out in the home stretch to finish fourth.
 
The next two assignments which Allan had were both maidens but they shed that status when taken on a successful pillar-to-post mission in their respective races. Altamash Ahmed-saddled Invictor lived up to the promise he showed on debut and went on to justify the faith imposed in him by the punters. Allan had Invictor off to a brilliant start and made every post of the seven-furlong journey for the YM Chaudhry Memorial Million a winning one. Invictor (Blue Point – Aqlaam Vision) proved far too superior for his rivals as he won easing up from the late-finishing Angelisa, Lorenzo and Soleva, who were all saddled by Pesi Shroff.
 
Allan’s third winner of the day came aboard Karthik Ganapathy-groomed Chicago Chimes, who too went wire-to-wire over the mile and quarter trip to achieve his maiden success in the Ferrari Plate. Chicago Chimes (Dreamfield – Smoking Bell) called the shots all the way and faced no difficulty in coping with runner-up Royal Champ and Golden Heart, his two maiden adversaries who laboured hard to catch the winner only to find that he was too good for them both. Leo The Lion took the fourth spot.
 
Yash Narredu completed a double when he confidently steered Blue Jet to victory in the PR Mehta Trophy, a five-furlong scurry contested by nine debutant juveniles. Malesh Narredu-schooled Blue Jet (Leitir Mor – Memory Bay) showed plenty of initial speed to hit the front when the gates flew open and was never headed thereafter though he had to briefly counter the threat posed by Dream Come True in the straight. The winner’s stablemate Gunfire rallied late to finish runner-up and was closely followed home by Dream Come True and Latios. The last named ran green in the home stretch and veered out to land on the outer track.
 
Adhirajsingh Jodha-saddled Challenge Accepted, who was an expensive failure on his first appearance at the Pune racetrack and then finished off the judges’ board in his next two outings over a mile, came into his own in the Maharaja Sir Pratapsingh Gaekwad Trophy, the day’s curtain raiser. Punters found good reason in Jodha’s decision to put Challenge Accepted to test over a shorter trip and, not surprisingly, he was backed down to favouritism. Entrusted to 3.5kg-claimer Ramswarup, Challenge Accepted raced on the haunches of leader Storm Cloud alongside Enforcer till turning for home and streaked clear of his rivals when his saddle partner gave him his head just before the two-furlong marker. Challenge Accepted (Gusto – Michaela) obliged his supporters by checking in over four lengths clear of Eastern Monarch, who was outpaced by the winner and so were top-weighted Bee Magical and Enforcer.
 
Later in the day, American Eagle proved that his previous win was not a flash in the pan when the Shazaan Shah trainee registered an encore in the SM Shah Salver. Ramswarup astride American Dream allowed no-hoper Otello to do the initial running and took control once the field had straightened for home. American Eagle (Leitir Mor – Windsor Manor) quickened well in the last two furlongs as Ramswarup kept her going under the whip for an easy win over Lucio, who was unable to bridge the leeway in the final stages of the race. Bohemian Rhapsody showed some improvement in her form as she ran a neck behind the runner-up and was followed behind by Agatha. Bezalel, whose performance in his previous outing landed jockey A. Sandesh into the crosshairs of the RWITC stewards, was once again installed as the favourite. However, P S Chouhan - trained Bezalel not only failed to make amends instead performed worse than what he did in his previous essay. Punters were left confused as to what they were to make of Bezalel's performance just like they were when Fynbos won the Indian Oaks after her controversial defeat in the 1000 Guineas.