Punters  took a drubbing at RCTC on Thursday as favourites fell by the wayside like ninepins. Only two public choices obliged in a card of seven races – both from the stable of Arti Doctor piloted by P Trevor.  Exceed lifted the Independence Cup.  The five-year-old bay – a recent import from Bangalore - by Western Aristocrat out of  Expect was the on-money public choice and was ridden flawlessly by Trevor who took the shortest route home after lying in fifth spot for most part. Part-owner Joydeep Dutta Gupta complimented Bangalore trainer Suleiman Attallohi for maintaining his ward in immaculate condition.  Earlier, Trevor had ridden Argento (Dreamfield-Talladega) to a facile victory over Keitaro in the Moon Mission Handicap.

The morning showed the rest of the day as heavily fancied Knotty Nash was pipped at the post by Vikash Jaiswal-trained seven-year-old gelding Sporting Trainer (Chinese Whisper-Mount Rushmore) with Varun in the saddle. The other well-backed runner Golden Hammer appeared to be blocked for room  and finished a close third in the curtain-raiser The Safari Handicap.

In the upper division of the Aladancer Handicap, Deepesh Narredu’s Princess S was backed to the exclusion of all others but the bottom-weight failed to live up to expectation as speedy Trillionaire(Dali-Lost In Thought) from B Rajender Reddy’s yard made every post a winning one in the hands of Tejeshwar. In the lower division of the same race, Javed Khan trained Dr Doom (Perfect Stride-Top Performance)with Vaibhav in the saddle lived up to his form after his close second last time out.  He was surprisingly available at 9/2 and quite easily accounted for joint favourites Three Little Words and the hapless Jaisalmer. 

Arti Doctor’s Cigar Galaxy surprised the well-backed Mindful in the last stride of the Swatantrata Plate. In the hands of Hindu Singh, the son of Western Aristocrat out of Celestial Way moved with raking strides with Hindu Singh in the saddle to pip Mindful at the wire. Stablemate and totalizator favourite Fable was not in the picture. 

The misery did not end their for punters as B Rajender Reddy had another surprise in store. His six-year-old mare Veneno (Win Legend-Oddetta) with Nikhil Naidu astride   picked up the last race of the day – a no whips event.  Several three-year-olds like Rambha, Princess S and Stormchaser failed in their lung-openers but will be worth keeping an eye on in the future.