A week before the blue riband of the season, the Zavaray Poonawalla summer Derby, most fancied contestants, bar a couple of rank outsiders, justified their top billing, while providing the railbirds the required confidence going into the Derby week-end.

After his two straight victories at Mahalaxmi (Mumbai), the Pradeep Chouhan-trained Manwar completed a hat-trick of wins, winning the DM Kumaraswamy Memorial Trophy in emphatic fashion. The in-form Vivek, who has graduated to the top group of saddle artistes, produced another sublime effort on the well-backed Chouhan ward, sealing the deal in the final furlong to the delight of the sporting owner Marthand Singh Mahindra. The topweighted Circle Of Dreams from Sulaiman Attaollahi's yard expectedly followed the winner home ahead of Hazel.

Yarra Yarra from Arjun Manglorkar's yard was another well-backed winner. Competing in the Mauritius Pearl Plate for maiden juveniles, the judiciously prepared Yarra Yarra proved too good for her five rivals, producing a winning gallop at the distance post to cruise home in effortless fashion. Antony Raj astride the winner didn't need to do anything special on the filly, who knew what to do and got the job done in style. Twice second from her two earlier starts, Garzian again found one better and hopefully this Lokanath trainee will break the ice in her next attempt. Second in demand at the betting ring, Shining Dawn from the stables of Darius Byramji just didn't know how to race and keep pace with the field and as a result failed to even save money in place. 

The Dominic camp fancied Whitney to upset the applecart of the overwhelming favourite Double Scotch in the third division of the Skyline Plate run over a distance of seven furlongs and she did just that in the cool hands of Vivek, stealing a march at the top of the straight before putting the race to bed in the final furlong. The favourite from Shoban Babu's yard found the winner too hot to handle and had to rest content with the runner-up berth ahead of Flamingo Dream. 

The second division of the event was a very open affair, three contestants, LG's Script from the stables of Lokanath, the Darius-trained Diesel and Glaze from Narayan Gowda's yard garnering good support, before Glaze ended the first favourite, minutes before the start. To the delight of the bookmakers, all the three flopped and failed to even save money in place. The moment the ten to one shot Fiery Love piloted by Prashanth Dhebe streaked ahead it proved to be a clean book for the bookies, hardly any pay out in win or place. 

The Prasanna Kumar schooled Sherlock despite shouldering a back-breaking weight of 62.5 kilos was fancied most in the first division of the event. James McKeown not impressed with the hype and hoopla surrounding the public choice, chose to plan and execute a king-sized gamble on Vorfreude. Five kilo-claimer Ritesh Gochhi was confidently entrusted the task to guide the colt home and all Ritesh did was push the James ward, slammed down from (8/1) to (3/1), to the front and Vorfreude did the rest, successfully bringing off a coup to the joy of his supporters. Divo gained the runner-up berth, Sherlock finished a tame fourth, while CR Seven, who opened second favourite before closing at (7/1), it was clear was never in the hunt. 

Vibrant Queen from Pradeep Annaiah's yard made every post a winning one in the Veterinarian's Cup run over a sprint. Last start winner Magestic Persona was strongly supported to provide an encore, but the topweighted filly, who has now joined Sharath Kumar's yard after winning her last start under the care of Lokanath Gowda failed in her mission to reproduce her winning effort and finished a tame third behind the runner-up Aatherv, who warmed up late.The runner -up with this good run under his belt will prove to be a different proposition next time out.