El Tropico (Juniper - Nature’s Miracle) showed tremendous speed and walloped the opposition, dishing out his personal and also the season’s fastest timing for the six-furlong sprint. Violetta, the favourite, lost valuable ground at the start and never really recovered enough to have any say in the Mysore Race Club Trophy. Schnell led the pack until the turn and faded away. Forever Young started to lunge forward but failed to quicken. Blue Danube soon went past and he had barely gone ahead when El Tropico flew on top gear to sail past and romp home in blazing fashion.

El Tropico covered ground impressively and confirmed his status as a top-class sprinter. It is a matter of speculation as to ’what if’ Violetta had taken a level jump. In my opinion, El Tropico was too good on the day and nothing in the line-up would have stopped him winning. El Tropico simply took the cracking initial pace well and despite not exactly being in the box seat, dished out a splendid performance. All credit goes to trainer Siraj Sunderji for keeping him in such fine trim.

Saints N Sinners (Burden of Proof - Corsicana) won a thriller lifting The Rao Saheb Kedari Gold Trophy in a tight finish with Rajasthan Royals. The field split into two groups soon on start with the front bunch comprising of Scenic Silver, Bright Future, Hunter Bay, Rajasthan Royals, Saints N Sinners and Always Smile all within three lengths. The rest were detached lagging by more than four lengths behind the front bunch. Scenic Silver led into the straight as Bright Future and Hunter Bay gave up.

Always Smile lost all his chances by going too far wide at the turn. Saints N Sinners headed Scenic Silver but was not able to shake her off completely. Rajasthan Royals came between these two and threw in his hat. The trio battled all the way to the wire with the Kunigal-bred Saints N Sinners scrapping through to log his third victory in four outings, this time by a head under the whipless apprentice Sandesh. The Rehanullah Khan-trainee showed a lot of courage to hold both challengers at bay. River Blitz finished on well as did San Rafael and Divine.

Star Trainer (Storm Trooper - Tiddly Widdly) provided the owners Mr Wadhawan and Mr Tharani with their third success of the day. Settling at a close fourth behind Roesti, Bolero and Top Action, Star Trainer made his move early in the straight to work up a handy lead. Riding Fantasy was languishing closer to the rear until the turn and when alerted by the jockey, accelerated quickly to cover ground at a brisk rate. However, by then, Star Trainer was well ahead and although Riding Fantasy finished on fastest, Star Trainer managed to scramble for home and hold his own. The winning post never came too soon for Star Trainer.

Seeing the way Riding Fantasy finished on, the stipendiary stewards had enough reason to question Trevor on the questionable ride given to Riding Fantasy and an enquiry has been initiated against Trevor. Adil Dajee’s Sunlight (China Visit – Romantic Liaison) had earlier won the mile and half The Nationalistic Plate and floored the market trends as the odds on her kept drifting upwards. Apache Indian set the early pace and went about it at a sedate clip. The rest followed in single file, Fire Vault one behind the leader and Sunlight in fourth. They travelled thus until the final turn and it was Fire Vault who took charge early in the straight. Born Special tried to fight his way ahead but was not getting anywhere. Sunlight then started to tower upon the front-runners and gather good momentum to sail ahead near the distance post.

Living The Dream slipped through the inside but was not in a position to catch up with Sunlight who by then had the race well sewn up inside the final furlong. Living The Dream only managed to strain his neck at the wire to peg back Fire Vault to third. Tara, who entered the straight last of all, had enough left in her to figure in the frame. Claim To Fame (Ikhtyar - Queenscliff) won as an on-money favourite ought to. Biding his time behind Grey Phantom, who did the initial running, Claim To Fame darted ahead soon on turning for home. Once in the lead, Claim To Fame surged further ahead and was elusive in the run for home. Macho Uno ran a decent second while Destined Prince made rapid progress to push Grey Phantom to fourth place. Mischevious Z (Mischevious Music - Zante) sprang from the mid-bunch taking the turn wide yet managing to take charge approaching the distance post.

Devil In Disguise warmed up soon and set about to challenge Mischevious Z in the final furlong. However, Mischevious Z under Dashrath Singh’s riding kicked on to easily ward off the challenger sustaining his bid all the way to the winning post. Rio Del Ray (Puerto Madero - Lucina) showed tremendous improvement over his last outing to notch up his first victory after a long wait. Sitting in the mid-group, Rio Del Ray wound his way to be in striking position in the straight. Torcello had just about taken charge but even as he was asked to quicken, Rio Del Ray came at him full of running.

Past the distance post, Rio Del Ray had worked up a solid pace and looked the winner approaching the winning post. The Right Man finished on fastest to nail Torcello for the runner-up berth. For the professionals, Trainer Sunderji scored a double, jockey C Rajendra a treble and B Prakash too notching up a lucrative double.