With the age and handicap on her side, the four-year-old filly Social Butterfly brooked no opposition and cantered away with the Corfe Castle Trophy, the supporting event in Sunday’s card. Dallas Todywalla-saddled Social Butterfly was off to a fluent start unlike her rivals—Credence, who was slowly out, and Son Of A Gun. Neeraj didn’t have much to do astride Social Butterfly (Excellent Art – Lady Danehill) except scrub her plain hands and heels in the home stretch, leaving the rivals to chase her shadows. Fontana remained in a futile pursuit of the winner and just held on to the runner-up position as Market King rallied late. Irish Gold took the fourth spot.
 
Earlier in the day, Neeraj steered another filly Minari in a similar start-to-finish effort to upset the applecart of favourite Pinnacle in the Intervalve Poonawalla Ltd. Trophy. Saddled by Imtiaz Sait, Minari jumped out smartly from the stalls to seize the initiative and had Yash Narredu-piloted Pinnacle gnawing at her heels. Bravion and Organised Chaos, who attracted some betting, which was negligible compared to Pinnacle’s scale, raced close behind. As Minari brought her three rivals into the straight, the other six contestants in the ten-horse field were already out of contention. Finding that Minari was not slowing down, Yash picked up the stick at the two-furlong marker in an attempt to get Pinnacle to rev up her speed. Neeraj rose to the occasion and kept Minari (Roderic O’Connor – Free Gold) up to her task by using his whip a couple of times. The filly stretched out gallantly, giving the followers of Pinnacle an excruciating feeling as the latter just couldn’t get up in time to catch her adversary. Eventually, Minari secured a neck verdict over Pinnacle. Organised Chaos and Bravion were engaged in a bitter fight for the third spot, which was wrested by the former. Minari’s triumph would have surely elated Neeraj, who had lost out by an identical margin astride Break Point to Yash, who was astride King’s Gambit in the first race. The two well-bred debutants—Sir Churchill and Jumanah, both saddled by Adhirajsingh and ridden by Akshay Kumar and David Allan respectively, were simply not up for this foray. Jumanah ran hopelessly in the rear after a sluggish start while Sir Churchill made no impression when fading out in the straight.
 
Fortunate Son went sailing into the lead when the five-horse set came out from the gates for the mile-long Kumar R. Dalal Trophy. Bottom-weighted Break Point, King’s Gambit, and Opus Dei were spread out when following Fortunate Son while favourite Zafferano, who failed to take a level jump, trailed the field. Break Point tackled Fortunate Son shortly after the heads turned for home when given his head by Neeraj whilst King’s Gambit, who was travelling at cruising speed, was also brought into contention by Yash. Break Point, who was in receipt of a good 9kgs from King’s Gambit, was in no mood to surrender and forced Yash to go for the whip, which he lost at the 300-metre marker. But that hardly mattered. Shroff-trained King’s Gambit (Deauville – China Creek) showed remarkable resilience as she slowly but surely closed the gap under Yash’s guidance and wore down Break Point in the shadow of the winning post, her elongated neck finally making the difference between winning and losing. Though it was of little consequence, the three other horses—Opus Dei, Zafferano, and Fortunate Son completed the formality of running third, fourth and fifth respectively.
 
Allan achieved a back-to-back double, that too at lucrative odds, when he steered Caccini and Algonquin to victory. Karthik Ganapathy-schooled Caccini lived up to the promise she had shown in the previous run and registered her maiden win in splendid style. Allan played the waiting game astride Caccini as her stablemate Chicago Chimes set the pace over the mile journey with Allez L’Etoile and Harrison in hot pursuit. As the field approached the final turn, Caccini almost dropped out but Allan made a forceful bid in getting her back into contention. At the top of the straight, Chicago Chimes made way for Allez L’Etoile, who flattered for about a furlong before coming under pressure from Diego Garcia and Caccini. However, it was Caccini (Leitir Mor – Forever Glory) who finished on strongly to lift the Mystical Trophy, beating Diego Garcia by four lengths. Allez L’Etoile finished in the money ahead of Harrison.
 
Todywalla-trained Algonquin defied the 5kg penalty he incurred for his maiden success and went on to achieve an encore, barely surviving the menacing attack of Looking Like A Wow. Allan eased off Algonquin after taking a swift jump from the barriers and allowed Cornerstone and Merchant of Venice to head the field. In the final run-in, Allan initially tried to take the gap between the pair ahead but, after finding no room to manoeuvre his way through, he quickly switched back to the inner rails. Driving him vigorously thereafter, Allan gained the upper hand with Algonquin (Dreamfield – Auryn) and went all out to retain the lead and stave off the spirited challenge from Looking Like A Wow. Giant Gold ended third while Lickety Split came from nowhere to finish fourth, wide on the outer flank.
 
The four-year-old filly Vegatha from PS Chouhan’s stables received sustained support from her connections in the betting ring and was also backed enthusiastically by those in the know; the filly did not disappoint them. Vegatha (Excellent Art – She Is Special), though unfavourably placed in the initial stages of the six-furlong sprint, unleashed a splendid turn of foot when R. Ajinkya showed her the daylight and scampered home for a comfortable win. Storm Cloud, Manor House, and Neptune, the early leaders, followed the winner home in that order. The fancied runners—Challenge Accepted, Charlie Brown, and Joondalup—were outpaced and failed to figure on the judges’ frame.
 
The last race of the day ended in a tantalising finish as Antony Raj-ridden Machiavellian and Ma Cherie with Vivek in the saddle were locked together as they went past the winning post. At first glance, it appeared that Ma Cherie had pipped Machiavellian on the post, but the photo-finish verdict went in favour of the latter—the pair separated by a whisker, literally. After tracking Wrangler until the heads turned for home, Adhirajsingh-nurtured Machiavellian (Dali – Soak) took charge but was required to be hard-ridden by Antony as he spurned the even-money favourite Ministry of Time and then lasted out to win from Ma Cherie, who made steady progress from the rear but just couldn’t make it. Mighty Hero ended a game third, while Ministry of Time ran a poor fourth.