Jockey Pradeep Chouhan was the cynosure of all eyes at Hyderabad on Sunday afternoon, bagging a massive five wins and missing the sixth by a whisker. Three of his wins were for trainer L.V.R. Deshmukh. Chouhan played mind game to beat Aphrodisiac in The Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Memorial Cup, the main event of the day. Aphrodisiac, Tristar and King’s Cruise were almost in a line nearing the distance marker.

Aphrodisiac surged a shade ahead but Chouhan brought Faisal Hassan’s Tristar (Hammerstein – Young Senorita) with a good gallop alongside Aphrodisiac and got the better by a length. King’s Cruise could not match strides with the two in front and finished third. Out of the six youngsters in The Recommender Plate, Arrow In Auto Mode and Bloody Mary turned out to be the best. Deshmukh’s Arrow in Auto Mode (Razeen – Aglitter) got into a good stride on the home stretch to emerge victorious.

Bloody Mary finished a good second and should get into the winning bracket soon. An objection by the fourth-placed Celandine against the third-placed Toli Toli Toli did not have substance and was overruled by the Stewards. Xtreme (Senure – Girllon) was tactfully ridden by P.S. in The Deccan Bookmakers Trophy, run over 1,800 metres. Approaching the 600 metres board, Xtreme was quick to surge clear and increased the margin on the straight that made it difficult for the rest to catch up. Art Connoisseur finished second and the rest were a distance behind. Easy Touch and Ultra Violet Ray were racing together in front till the last 200 metres in the higher division of The Half-A-Crown Plate. Chouhan got into the act on the public choice Girl of Love (Dark Nile – Appyness) and she responded well to win the race.

Golden Tricks finished on second while Ultra Violet Ray nosed out the ‘not-so-keen’ Easy Touch for the third place. Tons of money came on Sharp Victor, who closed at 10 to 9 ‘on’ at race time but that did not deter P.S. Chouhan from winning on April Showers (Ajaad – Taxido), in the lower division of The Democracy Plate. P.S. rode like one processed to get April Showers into galloping mood, to pass the front-running Sharp Victor.

Kathakali finished second with a sustained run while Brianna took the third spot ahead of Sharp Victor. P.S. Chouhan was unlucky to have missed out his sixth win on Canadian Girl, in the lower division of the Half-A-Crown Plate, the concluding race of the day. Splendid Scot was stuck at the gates for a few seconds and lost almost six lengths. Brushing up fast, jockey Vivek brought Splendid Scot to the lead but that effort did not last out as he lost steam and faded out midway up the straight.

The saddle on Canadian Girl had slipped before approaching the final bend and the horse had started to lug in badly. Jockey P.S. Chouhan managed to balance precariously on his mount and trying to keep her on even keel, made a valiant effort to get to Manduro (Don Micheletto - Taurina, who had by then established a sizable lead. Although Canadian Girl inched closer with every stride, she fell short by the proverbial whisker at the wire. L. D’Silva trained Mighty Prince (Tirol – Progressing) justified the favouritism in The Godavari Cup. S. John took his time to remind the ‘Prince’ of his task but once he did, he came up with a ‘Mighty’ gallop to sore a convincing win. Scorching Affair, Queen Of Sheeba and Chemeli filled the frame. Admire Aura was withdrawn after she was troublesome at the gates.

M. Sathyanarayana’s Santro (Mischeviuos Music – Angeles) upset in the higher division of The Democracy Plate, the opening race of the day. Cascading Glory, who was on a start-to-finish mission met one better in Santro. Sanjaa hasn’t improved her gate manners and took good amount of money with her, being slowly away.