“It’s third time lucky for Charismatic”quipped his mentor Rutherford Alford after the four-year-old chestnut gelding by Excellent Art out of First And Only One pulled off a scintillating victory in the Adjudicate Cup at RCTC on Friday. Indeed so -  the magnificent miler proved it beyond doubt that he ought not to have lost his two earlier races narrowly by reversing 7kg on King Louis- his conqueror in the Aperitivo Cup.This was a sweepstakes race and the terms appeared to favour King Louis over his adversary. Jockey Antony Raj atop Charismatic and Suraj Narredu astride King Louis went hammer and tongs all the way down the Calcutta straight and at the end of it all the four-year-old edged out his game seven-year-old rival by the proverbial whisker. The ante-post favourite Dubai Princess pulled up lame before the turning for home.Charismatic has incurred a penalty of 5kg for this phenomenal triumph.

The victory of Charismatic sealed a popular double for the Antony – Alford combination as they had earlier scored a facile triumph with top-weight Conjurer (Letir Mor – Hudson) in the seven furlong race for The Sky Classic Handicap. The filly incurred a 7kgpealty for this splendid victory. Despite this hike in rating, she has the potential to pocket a Class II race. 

The afternoon commenced quietly enough with the on-money public choice Royal Member (Sedgefield-Brahmani) from Javed Khan’s yard winning the mile event for The Predator Handicap without too much fuss in the hands of Suraj Narredu. Carnation was a notable second and cannot be ignored even in the upper class after her 2kg penalty. 

In the next event – a sprint for three-year-olds -the two fillies from Aashay Doctor’s yard were in the forefront all the way. Peaberry (Dali – Poll Promise) with Trevor in the saddle, prevailed over her stablemate Catherine by a narrow margin. The ante-post favourite Knotty Nash was never in the picture.

The outsider of the  day was the 20/1 Casha (Admiralty-Maisha) in the Amberetta Handicap. The Ritesh-trained marewith Vikrant in the saddle made it a start-to-finish affair while the favourite Mornao was completely shut out from an inside draw. Trevor failed to position her from the word go and she never had even an outside chance of making a race of it. The inexplicable loss of form of the promising filly has spelt doom for punters on more than one occasion. She seems to have lost her zest to race upfront. This loss of trait can often prove costly in Calcutta with its notorious hairpin and short straight. One can’t expect a “Cortado finish” from Trevor everytime he gets on a horse.

The curtain came down with Neil Darashah’s Loch’s And Glens (Saamidd-Kimono) providing Suraj Narredu with his 47th winner of the season. He seems destined to reach the half-century mark with three more racedays to go. In so far as the  winner Lochs And Glens goes, steward Enrico Piperno provided an informative insight to all the niggling problems his trainer had to deal with before the colt could come into his own. Now that he has proved himself a game galloper, he should win again, possibly before the season gets over.