He did not know that it was going to be his last appearance on the track. All was well till Exotic Star, a rank outsider, crossed the wire safely in the Royal Calcutta Turf Club Cup, but next few yards turned out to be disastrous for him. He pulled up lame leaving no hope for his existence any longer and had to be put to rest. Trainer Magan Singh's wards dominated the first half of the six races at the Delhi races on Monday.

Jockey R Parmod was the other professional to notch up a double. Available at nourishing odds, Exotic Star was in fifth position till the half-way mark. As the front-runners made a headway into the home straight, jockey Parmod cleverly pushed Exotic Star brilliantly through the gap between Black Partridge and Sarir to turn the table on Sunheree Parinda. There was a little over a furlong still left to travel. Exotic Star annexed the Cup, but while being eased down in the retiring area, his right fetlock got broken.

He was, later, put to sleep on humanitarian grounds. Call it a sheer luck, the gelding had just picked up form after meeting with many setbacks. Sunheree Parinda could have run much closer to Exotic Star, had Dashrath Singh shown his prowess in the last furlong. Afea and Sonic Boom, particularly latter, made a late dash for the third and fourth spots respectively. Zabardast ran on to be an impressive fifth after coming from behind. Magan's charge Stefano had to put in all his energy into the last sprint to maintain the start-to-finish attempt in the curtain raiser event - City of Joy Plate. The six year-old gelding had to face a stiff challenge from the favourite Ashwa Paddma.

Stefano had had his last win in Mumbai during the season 2008-09. The saddler's second win, however, came in easily. The victor was Lilly. The three year-old filly found no threat in making every post a winning one. The lanky professional completed his treble through Gangajal in the upper division of the Howrah Plate.

The six-year-old mare led from the front to taste her overdue victory this season. The lower division of the Howrah Plate was at the mercy of Katmai. The run of Elementto Trance and Dhrupad, who ran third and fourth respectively, is best ignored. Amity was the other horse who found her winning shoes in the seven-furlong Tollygunj Plate. She should complete an encore.