Soon after the fun-filled card at the Indian Derby weekend, a less-than-ordinary fare was served to the race-goers by the RWITC on Sunday. However, given the situation in which the equine sport finds itself in the country currently, the spectators or rather the punters have to make do with whatever is offered to them. The Mulraj Goculdas Trophy, a six-furlong sprint, happened to be the day's feature event and it was claimed by Pradeep Chouhan-saddled Ultimo. It was sheer luck that Ultimo survived the dual threat posed to his start-to-finish mission by Market King and Irish Gold in the dying moments of the race.

Neeraj Rawal had no difficulty hitting the front astride six-year-old Ultimo, who had an uncontested lead till the last furlong where Trevor Patel and G. Vivek mounted an attack with Irish Gold and Market King respectively. Ultimo shifted out slightly under pressure as the winning line came closer and Irish Gold also did the same but his drift was more pronounced as he took Market King out with him. Fortunately for the moneybags, Ultimo (Surfrider – Honey Dew) found the winning post coming to his rescue, escaping a certain defeat at the hands of Market King — who found success eluding him by a whisker. Irish Gold finished third, a length away and had Ataash following him home. In a surprise move, Trevor tried to get the judges' placing reversed by lodging a frivolous objection against the winner and runner-up for interference in the last fifty metres. But he cut a sorry figure before the Stewards when the evidence on tape revealed that his reasoning lacked substance. They swiftly rejected Trevor’s contention and dismissed the objection.

Pesi Shroff-schooled Bishop was the third consecutive favourite to win at the start of the day, making amends for her previous failure. Like Ultimo, Bishop’s success in the Nadir & Yawar Rashid Trophy was hard-earned. Vivek had Bishop racing well up behind Wind Dancer whilst Amyn Merchant-partnered Amazing Ruler was settled on her haunches. As soon as the three front-runners approached the final turn, Vivek and Amyn stepped up the pace to join Wind Dancer. However, it was Bishop who took control of the running with Amazing Ruler making a strong bid to gain the upper hand. After a bitter duel, Bishop (Deauville – Winds of Fortune) eventually managed to thwart her rival’s assault as Vivek was resolute astride the filly, forcing Amazing Ruler to play second fiddle. In hindsight, Amyn appears to have made his move a bit early at the turn but for which Amazing Ruler would have had a much better chance to topple Bishop. Rambler made it to the third spot, pegging back Seneca close home.

The Sonny Brar Trophy run over a mile and quarter turned out to be a one-sided affair after Golden Dancer duly obliged as the shortest priced favourite. Sent out by Dallas Todywalla, Golden Dancer stayed in close attendance of Exuma, who set the pace and other two runners — Endurance and slow-starter Kimiko, racing behind. After turning for home, Akshay Kumar launched his bid and drew level with Exuma following a steady gallop in the last furlong and half. Golden Dancer (Deauville – Xisca) was then driven out to keep Endurance at bay. Exuma and Kimiko ran third and fourth.

Storm Majesty from Aman Hussain’s stables made good improvement after his educative debut run and was ably guided by Trevor to his maiden victory in the NM Irani Trophy. In a change of tactics, Yash Narredu decided runaway tactics with Paloma on this occasion which did not work in her as she could not sustain her lead when Storm Majesty came charging down the straight. Paloma disputed the lead with the well-backed debutant Organised Chaos right from the start. But before this dispute could be settled, Trevor brought Storm Majesty (Sanus Per Aquam – Alexandrite) with a fluent run to go sailing past the duo in the final furlong. Paloma and Organised Chaos ended second and third respectively whilst favourite Ace In The Field, unable to reproduce the brilliance he had shown in the morning trials, ran fourth.

C. Umesh-piloted Silver Strike, a failed favourite in his first attempt this season, put in a strong run to tackle leader House of Lords little over a furlong away from home and kicked on gamely to taste his maiden success in the RM & Rukmini Goculdas Million. Silver Strike, for a change, took a level jump on this occasion to be in close touch with the leaders and stretched out well in the home stretch. Interceptor, with Shrikant Kamble in the saddle, improved nicely in the straight but could not catch the winner whilst the Trevor-ridden favourite Starseed arrived quite late on the scene and could do no better than finish third ahead of Escape Velocity, who ran thereabouts.

The strong handling of jockey Nirmal Jodha was instrumental in helping Adhirajsingh Jodha-groomed Merchant of Venice to upstage Marius, who was a winner at every stage except in the last couple of strides of the mile journey for the Nawabzada Rashiduzaffar Khan Trophy. Kirtish Bhagat tried to emulate his previous winning effort aboard the Shroff trainee as he took Marius to the front but faced stiff resistance from favourite Bravo Zulu and Merchant of Venice. Based on his last outing performance, Faisal Abbas-trained Bravo Zulu was heavily backed as he was now entrusted to Trevor. But Bravo Zulu could not quicken when throwing a challenge at the winner and then faded out to be fourth, leaving the field open for Merchant of Venice (Kingda Ka – Aquamarine) to fight the battle with Marius who, despite being punished heavily by his rider, was humbled nearer home.

Eight-year-old Sentinel earned his corn bill and the second bracket of his career when unleashing a sparkling run in the final run-in for the SA Wahid Plate, the day’s concluding event. Well-fancied Viennoise, ridden by Vivek, was being hailed as a winner after she grabbed the lead from Beat The Heat, who attempted a failed coup in this event, with about two furlongs of the scurry left to travel. Ar First Star, the prime favourite, was unable to match strides with the leader and started falling back at this juncture. Meanwhile, Bhawani Singh-ridden and Karthik Ganapathy-saddled Sentinel, after travelling at the back of the field till shortly after entering the home stretch, gathered good momentum when brought on the outer flank and made rapid progress with every stride to nail Viennoise in a finish, which was too close to call even for the digital camera, or so it seemed. After a prolonged suspense Sentinel (Planetaire – Carter Pace) emerged victorious, beating his rival by a nose. Samson held on to be third whilst Precioso, who recovered nicely in the straight having languished in the rear after a sluggish start, ended fourth.