Good Friday blessings were with trainer Rutherford Alford as he stole the thunder on the final day of the season with a fabulous foursome that commenced with a hat-trick and ended with 6/1 shot Gimmler. It was an afternoon when he might well have ended with another two winners. In the main event – The Punters Delight Handicap – Rutherford’s Conjurer had to settle for the runner-up berth  behind S. Waheed-trained Merlet (Letir Mor-Merletta) who was piloted by R Vaibhav.

The champion trainer of the season was Aashay Doctor with 30 wins. The champion jockey was Suraj Narredu with 52 wins. The champion horse was Arrived. The horse of the season was Jimmy Bee and the leading individual owner was Koushik Dutta.

Rutherford started the day with No Worry(Dali-Allee Bleue) who was guided home cleverly along the rails by Hindu Singh in The Beat The Distance Handicap. Next Rutherford lifted the Robin Hood Cup with Indian Jack (Gusto-Princess Rumela) on whom Trevor rode a flawless race. Sporting Trainer’s late bid for honours made him one for the notebook. Rutherford then went on to bag the upper division of The Adelita Handicap with surprise package Rudra (Total Gallery -Elysee) who was hard ridden by Azharuddin and available at odds of 10/1.

In the lower division of The Adelita Handicap, Suraj Narredu rode his first winner of the day astride Vijay Singh-trained heavy-weight Sir Winston (Kingda Ka – Smoke Ring). He has the potential to win again in Class III. Suraj completed a brace for the day in the upper division of the Cupid Handicap when he steered home Sabeel Shariff-trained Cash N Run to a close finish over Three Little Words on whom Neeraj Rawal may have left it a shade too late before making his run. Neeraj however made amends when he brought the curtain down in style astride Rutherford-trained Gimmler (Dali -Malakeye Ziba) who picked up the lower division of The Cupid Handicap from the fast finishing, ever consistent Jimmy Bee.

The most interesting race of the afternoon was The Sunray Handicap won by Javed Khan -trained Royal Member (Sedgefield-Brahmani) who completed a double for jockey Hindu Singh. The chestnut glding was the handicap horse available at 8/1 and proved the handicapper right as he edged out twice winner Verrazzano.

This article won’t be complete without a word of praise for the commendable work done by the handicapper Amit Chaturvedi who holds multiple portfolios as he is also the senior stipe and clerk of the course. A special mention also for commentator Albert Khare who held fort successfully in the second half of the season when principal caller Cyrus Madan was absent due to serious personal commitments abroad.