Trainer Vijay Singh`s champion galloper, Snowdrift, simply thrashed the opposition on his way to lifting the 1,600m Calcutta Gold Cup, the feature event in Saturday`s race card. In the proccess of his triumph, the Multidimensional-Snow Tiger son also proved that his recent victory over the mighty stable-mate, Dandified, was no fluke. A 3-1 chance in the betting, Snowdrift gave a virtual armchair ride to his jockey Christopher Alford, in view of the fact that three of the nine horses in the field included the out-station heavyweights. The likes of trainer Pesi Shroff`s western India challenger, Circle Of Bliss – a 13-20 hot favourite –, placed a poor third while the second berth was occupied by Vijay`s another youngster, Mr Gorgeous, who made most of the running. Incidentally, the day proved profitable for Singh brothers – Vijay and his younger sibling, Bharath – and also for jockeys Shailesh Shinde and Dashrath Singh, as each of the four spinned a double.

Snowdrift was ridden well off the pace and brought in to the home straight very wide but the champion galloper covered the ground with electrifying run and went about his task of winning, with Alford hardly having to move his arms and legs. The four-year-old simply cantered home, leaving Alford to apply negative tactics to arrest and restrict the final verdict to three lengths over the longtime leader, Mr Gorgeous who, in turn spared half-alengtrh to to the visiting western India horse, Cicle Of Bliss.

In the same race, the grand oldman of the turf, Ocean And Beyond, who was running after close to six months, placed fourth while the topweighted Machiavellianisn, the Deccan challenger, was nowhere in the picture. However, the outstation invaders are no mean performers and they need to be kept in mind over the longer terms races as they need to put in more condition.

Early in the afternoon, Vijay`s friendless Divine Dimension had carved out an unconventional victory when the smart designs of jockey Shinde paid off in the 2,000m J.J. Stephens Memorial Trophy. Sending the Multidimensional three-year-old in to a 100m lead from the start and staying put to a length-plus victory on a maiden youngster – to down a fancied top-weighted filly, Sugar Sweet – was indeed a good plot. Nevertheless, Sugar Sweet who hasn`t been doing well with the top-weight, may be given a chance in the upper Class.

The 1,100m Calcutta Juvenile Stakes was also for Vijay`s asking, in view of the trainers`s Glamorously`s batism by fire when she went to down the stable`s another good prospect, Multitude in her last outing. Glamorously attracted tonnes of money at 7-10 but brother Bharath Singh had aother ideas. His speedy customer, Suzanna, humbled Vijay`s Glamorously almost from the start of the race, playing the catch-me-if-you-can game to score by four lengths in the hands of Dashrath Siungh.

Early in the afternoon, Dashrath had helped Bharath`s Santos score a back-to-back victory while claiming the 1,200m Madras Race Club Cup. The verdict recorded by Santos, over Meet The Legend was not very long but the jcokey had a tonne in his hand as he brought the half-money favourite from the mid-division to overhaul his eight rivals.

Patrick Quinn is a gutsy trainer and he demonstrated it loud and clear having accepted to run Amandus (Zarvan-up) over a scurry, after winning a 1,400m race on the same horse last week. The same compliment goes for Amandus who was backed down to 5-4 as a good thing, and also delivered the goods in the 1,100m Goolagong Cup. Lacking early speed, Zarvan brought Amandus with his forceful jockeyship, to snatch the verdict at the post from Chimeric and Alondra who were disputing the issue. It goes without saying that the grey horse would strike again over the trip he is more comfortable.

Patrick`s Sreeputra (S. Zervan-up) also placed a good second to Glamorous Glory, who cashed in on in her mock-race form to lift the day`s opener, the upper division of the Hydrofoil Handicap. Shreeputra seems to be coming right now and his turn to earn a winning star is not very far.

The lower division of the race was picked up by trainer Javed Khan`s Warrior who presented Shinde an opportunity to notch his second win on the day.