It was an entertaining afternoon of racing on a warm day at RCTC on Saturday. There were achievements galore – the most remarkable being that of trainer Ritesh who opened his account for the season with an amazing quadruple – his winners being Verrazzano, Cashable, Immortal Beauty and Booster Shot which undoubtedly boosted his confidence level no end. Sharing the honours with him was the irrepressible saddle artist Trevor who too recorded four wins. Trainer Aashay Doctor recorded a double – picking up the two major events of the afternoon.

The main event of the afternoon – The Calcutta Million – was pocketed by Aashay’s colt Admiringly (Letir Mor – Goldilocks) who won the mile race start to finish in the hands of Trevor. Saiko was a fair second. In the supporting event – The Metropolitan – a sprint over six furlongs – Aashay’s well-performed sprinter Pantazi (Western Aristocrat-Waveband) made every post a winning one quite easily – once again with Trevor in the saddle. As the jockey declared an overweight of 3.5kg, the colt incurred a rather heavy penalty of 8.5kg  which is pretty rare in a high-weight handicap event.

Barring Booster Shot who was available at 10/1, Ritesh’s other three winners were well-backed  favourites. Jockey A Vikrant set the ball rolling for him with Verrazzano (Air Support-Estedaamia) who won the mile race for The Pentire Handicap rather confidently though a late challenge from Royal Member must have been slightly unnerving for the connections. Ritesh next recorded victories in both divisions of the Aashna Handicap with the help of Trevor from the saddle. In the upper division, public choice Sir Winston set a cracking pace though he was running after nearly seven months and a gelding surgery. His effort came to nought when Trevor on Cashable as well as  Marcolini turned on the heat in the straight. Cashable (Smuggler’s Cove – Azarenka) prevailed. In a similar fashion, Trevor atop Immortal Beauty (Multidimensional- Ice Beauty) got the better of runaway Honey Cake in the lower division. Ritesh completed his quadruple with a stunning victory in the Carring Minds Cup run over a mile. His six-year-old ward Booster Shot (Multidimensional – Fortaleza) was hard ridden by heavy-weight Nikhil Naidu to a spectacular victory over four-year-olds Multi Success, Cigar Galaxy and Duesenberg.  This, despite shouldering a crushing 61.5kg.

The curtain came down with an edge-of-the-seat thriller as Rajesh Narredu-trained Star Studded (Deauvile-Immortality) got the better of Oaks winner Heart in the mile-and-half race for The Sentouki Handicap. After their clash in the Derby, Star Studded was 7kg better for a 13/4 length verdict so the stylishly bred colt was indeed the logical choice. However, Trevor atop Heart livened things up in the straight before Vishal Bunde pulled out all stops to pull off a remarkable triumph. The trainer said post-race that he was yet to decide whether the colt will run The Leger.