Satish Narredu's Sprint Star confirmed his status as a top class miler by posting an authoritative victory in The Karnataka Cup (Grade III) at Bangalore on Sunday. The winner of the Bangalore 2000 Guineas and The Delhi Derby showed sparkling acceleration while sailing past a helpless Icebreaker and lifting this well-endowed trophy. The terms race had attracted some well-performed horses. Icebreaker and Aristos were well served by the terms of this race.

Both were carrying imposts lower than what they may have had to carry against their rivals in a handicap event. Sprint Star and Onassis looked set to oppose them. The best looking horse in the paddock was Onassis. He sported a wonderful coat and looked extremely well. Icebreaker and Aristos looked their usual selves while Sprint Star seemed to have lost condition as compared to what we had seen of him in winter.

With top-class riders declared to partner these four runners, a real close fight was on the cards. The same sentiment was echoed on the betting boards. Icebreaker at 3/1 was favoured marginally ahead of Sprint Star, Onassis and Aristos. The race started with Bid For Gold setting a strong pace ahead of Aristos and Cotswold Arms. A bunch of no-hopers chased the leaders while the fancied trio of icebreaker, Sprint Star and Onassis raced in mid-division as the runners took the rising ground and turned for home. Jockey Srinath was content to allow Icebreaker to hug the rails, as he knew that the tiring group in front would roll out under pressure.

Suraj and Sprint Star were seen galloping in the shadow of Icebreaker, while Prakash decided to keep waiting with Onassis. The expected gap appeared on the rails, and in a trice we had a new leader. Icebreaker streaked away to open a nice lead, and she seemed to be in control of the situation. The cheering of her fans was shortlived, as she was soon joined by Sprint Star. Under the powerful goading of Suraj Narredu, Sprint Star overtook Icebreaker and charged home for an impressive victory.

With the gleeful rider waving his whip, Sprint Star won much easier than the official verdict declared by the judge. Onassis came from the tail end of the field to run an impressive third. Onassis was an unlucky runner in this race. Jockey Prakash gave him a very ordinary ride today. He restrained the horse from taking an advantageous position in the early stages of this race, and swung wide into the straight. He ran into a wall of horses at the bend before receiving a serious check at the top of the straight. With less than two furlongs to travel, Onassis was last but one.

The fact that he charged home from a hopeless position, to finish about five lengths behind the winner tells the rest of the story. The father-son duo of Satish and Suraj Narredu were quick to complete a double when they won the very next race with Duke Of Edinburgh. This four year-old had performed brilliantly in a mock race on the local track and was an even-money favourite to land the spoils.

Duke Of Edinburgh was so much superior to his rivals that he literally dragged Suraj to the front, and won by almost a distance from the well-backed Party Tonite. The handicapper is bound to give him a stiff penalty, but that may not stop him from winning again. Duke Of Edinburgh gave notice of his staying abilities, and at his current rating, it may be difficult to beat him over a galloping trip. In what eventually turned out to be a procession, Spark Of Joy ended a poor third. Sunday was a day of "doubles" at Bangalore.

Apart from the Narredu family, the others to score more than once were Amit Caddy, Ladjadj Stephane and JS Dhariwal. With the help of his retained rider Stephane, Amit Caddy opened his account for the season. Their first win came in a race for horses in Class V. Blue Origin was their winner in this race. Blue Origin and Ladzone were expected to wage a grim battle in this race. However, with Ladzone getting left at the gates, Blue Origin's job became easier. She toyed with the front-running Gara Fluid, before establishing her superiority.

Foresight made a belated effort on the wide outside to take the third spot. The other victory for this pair was more exciting. Stephane decided to wait with Amit Caddy's Express It, and essayed his challenge only in the last two furlongs of this sprint. The favourite Spark Of Isis had led from the start, and after brushing off his closest challengers, looked set to claim the honours. In a sudden turn of events, jockey Sunil lost his whip.

With a furlong left to travel, he began hustling his horse. In the meantime, Express It began making his move through the middle. Making free use of the whalebone, Stephane brought Express It with a lightning run to nail the favourite on the winning post. Spark Of Isis lives to fight another day. Dhariwal-trained Day Trader upset the applecart of the Ganapathy stable, by storming past their half-money favourite Secret Vision.

The got-abroad filly was touted as a certainty and was backed strongly in the opening race of the day. Imran Khan took the dark bay filly to the front, but by the time they reached the bend, he knew that she was beaten. Secret Vision started sending distress signals and began shortening her strides. In the midst of all this, Srinath brought Day Trader with a flourish and romped home to a spectacular victory.

The winner was available at 7/1 in the betting ring. Count Royal was able to catch Secret Vision close home, thereby taking the second spot ahead of her. The manner in which the favourite stopped in her tracks showed that she was under some sort of stress. She was passed by the entire field after crossing the winning line. The Sir M Visvesvaraya Memorial Cup, a seven-furlong race for horses in Class III, saw quite a few fancied runners facing the starter. Desdemona, Kingdomofdreams, Savvy Concept and Rugged Beauty had support in the betting rings.

Rugged Beauty made a valiant bid to carry 61 kilos to a pillar-to-post victory in this race. The filly led till the distance post, before Desdemona got the better of her. Just as Desdemona was being hailed a winner, the long striding Camelot arrived on the scene. With Sampson pushing him vigorously, Camelot got up on the last stride to lift this trophy. Dhariwal has done well with this horse, as this was Camelot's third win in his last four starts.

Kingdomofdreams was running for the first time after being gelded, and this big-made horse will definitely benefit from today's exercise. Savvy Concept disappointed by running a poor race. The most impressive performance of the day came from Prithviraj's Sirono. In her only career start, the three year-old filly had run a blinder in winter, when she had made the odds-on Flying Tricolour sweat it out before getting the better of her.

She had shown that she possesses blinding speed and an immaculate temperament. The filly was quoted at 4/1 against an odds-on Sky Light, who too was bidding to improve on her last season performance. Arjun Mangalorkar's Sky Light had been subjected to some nice preparation, while Sirono had been prepared on the inner sand track.

A late surge of betting on Sirono saw the bookmakers running for cover. They tried their best to pick up bets on Sky Light, but the punters were equally alert. Imran Chisty rushed Sky Light to the front and led from Lad Diva and Sirono. One look at PS Chouhan's posture on Sirono was enough to know the eventual result of this race. While Imran was busy niggling Sky Light to stay in front, Sirono was cruising effortlessly.

Chouhan gave Sirono a couple of cracks near the distance post before putting away his stick. The filly lengthened her strides and darted away for a fluent victory. This was a truly special performance as Sirono missed cracking the course record by a fraction of a second.