Racing at Malakpet swings between two extremes. Either you have parade of favourites or rank outsiders winning. However, the common thread that runs between these two extremes is the absence of competition. Races are mostly one sided. Concentration of good horses in a few stables and the reluctance of others to take them on has resulted in the sport ceasing to be a spectacle. The good horses keep getting chances to win with the penalty being very light. Nobody wants horses to be penalized heavily but then handicapping should also not become too mechanical. The purpose of handicapping is to equate chances. The present system does not achieve that in any manner. For the record, five favourites won in a card of seven events.

Camborne had won two races back to back in a manner that spoke highly of this three year old. His superiority was only notional because he lost the 1400 metres K Mahipathi Rao Memorial Million without even a semblance of fight. Jockey Pradeep Chouhan who keeps counting winners on the local track like Prakash used at Chennai had no work to do Veloz who made the race a hopelessly one sided one. Veloz hit the front and kept on expanding the lead to nearly a distance. Camborne was poor second ahead of Dad`s Dollar.

Sometimes reading the results itself speaks more eloquently than any description or analysis of the races as there is nothing much to say except so and so who ran as a favourite successfully went on a start to finish without being tested by any of the others. Such races are dime a dozen. Movie Moghual was quoted at cramped odds and not without reason. Chouhan had to steer the horse over seven furlongs, without having to exert himself. The favourite checked in more than nine lengths clear of Compromise and Symbol of Victory.

The Independence Cup, a Category III race that was run in two divisions, went the way of favourites though in contrasting fashion. Sweet Candy showed up prominently in the final furlong with favourite Racing Ahead joining the issue on her inside. The two fought out a stiff battle for supremacy with jockey Deep Shanker extracting that bit extra from Sweet Candy to prevail by a whisker in the upper division of the race. Palm Springs ran on to finish third. Ocean Side was third. Decathlon took control of the proceedings in the lower division inside the distance post and had no problem in winning the race by four lengths from Cristiano.

Faisal Hassan trained Care Less Love moved up strongly to surge ahead of front running True Friend inside the final furlong and recorded an easy win in the 1100 metres Vijayanagaram Plate (Div I), a Category III race. Apprentice jockey Akshay Kumar who rode the winner was also astride on another Faisal Hassan trainee Star Engagement who despite drifting out of a straight course, nevertheless proved too good for the front running Arudra to claim the lower division of the race.

Narayan Rao trained Hidden Power graced the rear till well into the straight before being angled out to the wide outside. The rank outsider devoured ground and won with a measure of comfort, the B Marideswara Memorial Cup, a Category II race. Till Hidden Power showed up on the extreme outside, it looked as though the outcome of the race would be confined to Tejaswini and Meg who were engaged in a stiff battle for supremacy.