Jockey Suraj Narredu had a busy day in office on his re-appearance on the race track after a gap of three weeks and rattled off a fine treble in the first half of the day. He would have scored a couple more had he not been surprised by two Naren bombshells in Enchanted and Glorious Miss, both accounting for hot, on-money favourites that Suraj partnered in their respective races. Suraj began with a bang riding favourite Sea Diamond (Graeme Hall - Irish Glitter) to a facile victory in the very first race. With a smart jump and quick acceleration, Suraj got Sea Diamond to a bright start and soon led the field going at a decent clip. Aleutian Zone and Geisha were in chase right from the outset and ended doing so.

Sea Diamond entered the straight and kicked on well and away from the others and encountered no challenge while coasting to a convincing victory. Suraj then experienced the agony of being shocked on the ‘money-back’ favourite Star Builder which was the biggest upset of the day. Narendra Lagad’s Enchanted (Inhabitant - Enchanteur) went to the front and opened a huge gap over his rivals and still was a good 4-5 length ahead coming into the straight. Star Builder improved and got close to the leader past the 400 and it did appear that he would sail past.

However, Enchanted did not relent and jockey SK Jadhav seemed determined to make the most of his winning opportunity. He goaded Enchanted to go on and to the favourite’s chagrin, Enchanted galloped on without weakening. Suraj made a last ditch effort and covered considerable ground in the final fifty, but was a stride too late to make it a winning effort, going down by a short-head at the wire. Suraj quickly put that loss behind him and was ready to delight the followers of Star Vision (Warrshan - Anodyne) in the very next race. The odds on Star Vision had drifted considerably as National Ikon received huge support at race time. Highland Warrior coasted to the lead early on start and led the field until the home turn. Star Vision, who was next in the order of running, quickly took charge on straightening for home. Once in the lead, Star Vision looked formidable and never faltered after that. National Ikon, who raced along the rails all the time, soon got past the Highland Warrior, then chased the winner without making any impact.

Tomorrows Dreams (Bee’s Prospector – Alfie) earned a hard-fought victory and provided a thrilling encore after his last successful start. Lying in wait in the third position behind the leader Uproar and with Ashwa Prayag on his inside, Tomorrows Dream grabbed the lead from Ashwa Prayag soon after the latter went past Uproar inside the last 400. Suraj had to keep working to keep his rivals at bay. The challenge got stronger closer to the finish when Inner Harmony, Rajdoot and Fiery Fortune were snapping at the tail of Tomorrows Dreams, but Suraj played a decisive hand in ensuring that Tomorrows Dream went all out to score narrowly from Inner Harmony and Fiery Fortune.

The day also saw an awesome debut by Shyam Habbu-trained Pablo Neruda who won the Div I of the Delage Trophy. Without breaking out in an electrifying start, Pablo Neruda (Imtiyaz – Frida Kahlo), was closer to the rear end of the field. Blessed jumped out smartly and was at the helm until well into the straight, with Rule Forever and Ashwa Gaurav in close attendance. Blessed seemed to be going well past the 400 when Rule Forever came in to the challenging mode.

Approaching the distance post, Blessed still held a slender advantage although Ashwa Gaurav, Rule Forever and Devine Splendor were gaining on her. Pablo Neruda then appeared like a charging bull and inside the last 100 zipped past the fighting bunch to carve out an impressive victory in a splendid show of speed. This is a remarkable effort and jockey Kishore Kadam too needs a pat on the back for the marvellous effort. The finish brought to mind the terrific effort of Amadeus on debut and Pablo Neruda sure implies that he too would be a force to reckon with for the future.

The Div II of the Delage Trophy was won by Blue Sky (China Visit – Blue Ridge) owned by the breeder Ms Ameeta Mehra and trained by Dallas Todywalla. Mountain Prince garnered enough support to be the tote favourite and looked to be on course as he hit the front soon on start. Blue Sky was quick to gain ground to be a close second with Destined To Glory and Radical Mackie not too far behind. This quartet was well ahead of the others. Bellisima had to rush to improve on a slow start and spent a bit to catch up with the bunch in the early part of the race. Coming into the straight, Mountain Prince was off the bridle rather too early and when Blue Sky pounced on him, Mountain Prince could offer no resistance.

Blue Sky smoothly shot ahead and worked up a lovely rhythm and soon it was clear that was no one in the vicinity would surprise her to the winning post. Blue Sky, in fact, romped home to stamp her superiority and won pulling up. Destined To Glory ran a good second, pushing Mountain Prince to the third. Radical Mackie dropped out and it was later announced that he broke a blood vessel. Staffan gained on this to figure on the judge’s frame. Snow Queen (Stienbeck – Ithica) scored a scintillating victory despite coming off a layoff. This was her first outing this season and she made it count.

Trainer Sandeep Manglorkar certainly had done his job well in maintaining her fitness and she obliged with a good gallop and shook off the late challenge from favourite Starfall. Gatravat and Tell Me More disputed the early lead and were well clear of the rest. Green Signal, Sea Of Kisses and Takestwototango were in a huddle. Snow Queen raced next on the outer side with Starfall racing with only Cloud Cover behind him. Starfall was a wee bit slowly off and had work to do. Although Gatravat and Tell Me More came into the straight with a handy lead, neither looked like making it count when it mattered. Soon Green Signal and Sea Of Kisses started to zero in on the leaders, when Snow Queen started to devour ground with smooth strides.

She darted into the lead and stretched nicely to build a lead. Starfall then started to make his presence felt but had too little ground to inflict a telling blow. In the last fifty, he moved ahead with purpose but Snow Queen had enough to thwart the late challenge to win by a neck. Starfall was a bit unlucky at the start and did well under the circumstances to go down fighting, but it was clearly a superlative effort from Snow Queen that proved successful. Glorious Miss (Warrshan – Supreme Glory) finally came good after showing glimpses of speed coming into this race. This was, however, when it was least expected as the popular fancy was Ocean Sonata and Glorious Miss was ignored in the betting ring. It was a bunched-up front group with Glorious Miss enjoying a slender advantage over Blessings, Sunlight Magic and C’est La Vie. Ocean Sonata was just behind these four.

Turning for home, Glorious Miss accelerated well and went ahead of the rest to build a handy lead. Ocean Sonata gained through the rails with Blessings just ahead of the favourite. Glorious Miss galloped on regardless of the developments behind her and when Ocean Sonata switched to the outside of Blessings, Glorious Miss had more or less sewed up the race. Ocean Sonata could merely cut down the margin to end a decent second. Blessings earned the place money. C’est La Vie had all the chances, but just couldn’t provide her best. Trainers Narendra Lagad and Hormuz Antia saddled a double each, but the star of the day was certainly Suraj Narredu with three winning efforts.