The remarkable acceleration displayed by Feroz Khan's Alinski stood out as a single bright spot on an otherwise forgettable afternoon of racing on Tuesday at Mysore. An eight-event card dominated by older horses, devoid of a race for youngsters and featured by a race for horses in the lowest class, was the story of the day. Punters approached it with caution, but were still taken aback by the happenings on the track. Most of the fancied runners were shocked close home by rank outsiders.

Regal Image, Ansonia, Here Comes The Don, Youremylov and Queen Of Destiny were the ones that ran below par, and by doing so, took a lot of good money down with them. More importantly, it highlighted an oft-repeated comment that "racegoers should stay away from betting heavily on old and unsound horses". A class VB race was the day's feature. It was aptly named as The Trigger Cup.

The bookmakers pulled a trigger in the form of Musical Signature, who came through a packed field and stormed away for an easy success. The longer odds against this horse were justified by his negative rating. Mysore is perhaps the only centre in the country which allows minus rated horses to participate in their racing. Other race clubs would normally ask such horses to be retired after going below zero rating. Anyway, Musical Signature was backed by people close to the stable, and trainer Kishore was able to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

The front-running group of Mutual Fund, Mahseer and Berkeley Square had no answers to his assault and surrendered without a fight. Afsar Khan rode a strong finish on the winner. Kishore had performed another miracle with Briannsta earlier in the afternoon. The seven year-old was entered in a mile race for horses in Class IV. The horse had not been sighted on the training track for over a month. Where and when this horse was prepared shall remain a mystery. To add to the confusion, he declared one of the poorest jockeys available at Mysore to ride him.

Under the handling of Shanth K, Kishore asked his owners to back the horse. They wagered on him to beat Regal Image, and that is exactly what Briannsta managed to do. Madhu Babu and Regal Image looked like the winners all through the race except at the winning post. Shanth K pulled the horse towards the outer portion of the track and showed him daylight.

It was apparent that Kishore had trained the horse to do the rest. The winner got up on the last stride and credited Kishore with the first of his two winners on Tuesday. Immediately after winning with Musical Signature, jockey Afsar Khan was declared to ride Alinski. The sprint event for horses in the highest class was expected to be a real cracker. A whole lot of speedy customers led by Youremylov faced the starter.

The only question mark against the 13/10 favourite, Youremylov was his ability to get the last fifty metres of this race. He is blessed with blinding speed and there is never a doubt about his ability to go to the front. Amyn Merchant took him on a start-to-finish mission, and almost succeeded in his attempt. His nearest pursuers began to fade from the scene steadily, while the ones at the back began to get stronger. Alinski looked menacing in the final furlong, and Afsar Khan produced another brilliant effort in the saddle.

Alinski stormed past Youremylov and registered his first win in more than a year. Red Dawn ended a close third. It seems like Youremylov shall have to bide his time and wait for a five and a half furlong race to appear in the prospectus. Trainer Sharavanan and his stable jockey Velu combined effectively to score another double during the afternoon. While Nice Guy was the only fancied runner to score in the day's card, their success with Jedi Knight was a shock for most followers of form. The heavily supported Ansonia was travelling nice and easy ahead of Tantrik, Vertex and Indrajit till well into the straight. It was difficult to imagine the defeat of the leader at this stage. For some unknown reason, Ansonia began to shorten his strides and allowed a bunch of runners to close the gap on him. In a sudden turn of events, Jedi Knight, Vertex and Indrajit flashed onto the scene and beat Ansonia into fourth place.

Vertex was the unluckiest runner in this race as she had to change course on a couple of occasions during the race. She is likely to score in the near future. Bottom weighted Alpha Centauri landed the final punch of the day. This rank outsider was sent into an unassailable lead by apprentice Shoaib, and was able to keep Kaliyug Raja and a late finishing Artic Princess at bay.

The favourite Queen Of Destiny was given a poor ride by John. She was hampered for room on the inside rails, and the boy was unable to extricate her from that position. It is difficult to say whether she would have won this race, but it was obvious that she would have finished much closer to the winner.