Her victory was on the card. But things went wrong just by a neck in the crucial stages as Quality Assurance failed to live up to expectations in the Bangalore Turf Club Cup (1100m) at the Delhi races on Tuesday. Over the day, trainer Deepak Kalra and jockey Rajinder shared a treble each.Finishing close second to Ode To Nature in the previous outing over five furlongs, running over 100m more and facing a field of six horses of which most were either trying their stamina over shorter trip or struggling for form, made the chances of the six-year-old mare rosy. But The Rock (Ontario-Mystery Mood) came her way making every post a winning one.

Though DK Ashish, who was atop Quality Assurance, tried even to convince the stewards by raising an objection against The Rock for obstructing his way, the move didn’t bear fruit. Rumour of deadlameness of Moongate Man (Steinbeck-Stream Of Love) during the morning trials went against the grey gelding, even though he stood tall in the paddock prior to the race. Then came the astounding winning gallop that silenced everyone in the upper division of the Dr SD Sharma Memorial Cup. Moongate Man should complete an encore. Rajinder again united with the Deepak Kalra-saddled Youthfulreflection (Eljohar-Eye In The Sky) to wrap up the senior division of the cup in a similar fashion.

SP Singh's Pacemaker (Diffident-Zografi) tasted his first victory after the gap of a season. Sunehree Parinda once again found the distance sharp and settled for the runner-up berth. Jockey DK Ashish recovered himself from a blow of narrow defeat of Quality Assurance by foiling the start-to-finish bid of Dazzling Cracker through Tempting Thought (Ontario-Thirtysomething) by a whisker in the Veterinarian Plate. Dazzling Cracker should make amends. Zulfiqar's ward Mystic Miracle (Flitch-Ric-Rac) sauntered the field coming from nowhere over the mile's St Stephen Hospital Plate.