Trainer Bharath Singh`s long shot, Mystic Romance (Dashrath Singh-up)– a new acquisition from western India, scored an authoritative victory, over the course favourite, Aptness, to claim the 1,400m Chitralekha Cup, the feature-event in Saturday`s race card. It was a brilliant piece of performance recorded by the Placerville daughter, on an afternoon that also witnessed a couple of made-to-order races, which, of course, left many a raised eyebrows. On the records, jockey Christopher Alford booted home three winners, including two for Harvinder Bath, in the seven-event card. Bharath and Dashrath, too, went on to saddle a double apiece, which was a creditable effort Trainer Robert Gowli, too, scored a brace of wins , towards which the opposition contributed handsomely.

Mystic Romance`s (ex-Mystic Dancer) bloodlines commanded respect but her western India score card fell short of public admiration. Her bloodlines boasted of close relationships with the great performers like Mystical and Diabolical. However, with erratic career-graph under her belt she attracted no takers, leaving trainer Vijay Singh`s Aptness corner most of the wagering.

The 14/10 favourite, Aptness, led from the start and nearly pulled it off; until Mystic Romance got her act together, almost from the wrong end of the field to skate clear of the Alford-ridden public-choice.

Gowli`s saga was a slightly different story. On each occasion jockey Shailesh Shinde was the major contributory factor towards the successes of Gowli`s Mello Fellow and Kanya Kalyan, in their respective events – the baby race, the 1,100m Malavika Plate, and the 1,100m Bengal Area Cup.

Shinde, atop the 13/20 hot favourite, Amazing Legend, allowed Mello Fellow a long lead from the start of the race and suffered a humiliating defeat on the Vijay Singh-trained youngster. The story was no different in the case of Kanya Kalyan as Shinde walked on the scene from way back, just going down by three parts of a length.

Alford`s quest for the treble started early, in curtain raiser, the 2,000m Accalia Handicap. Riding the half-money favourite, Spyro, the champion jockey had precisely little to do, besides ensuring against

A fall, as he guided the Bath-trained horse to a three-length victory over Bharath`s Scarborough Fair (Dashrath Singh).

Alford`s task was on trainer Javed Khan`s favourite, Make Way For Me – another migrant from western India, was also made easy by Shinde in the 1,400m Robin Hood Handicap. The even-money favourite was always marginally ahead of the Shinde-ridden Jupiter – both positioned close to the rails, as Evera, Sage Valley and Attraction showed way to the fancied pair; until the home turn. Alford brought the public-choice the shortest way home to shoot into the lead while Shnde decided to take the circuitous route. And to make the matter worst, the jockey also allowed the 5/2 fancied runner to shift-in alarmingly from the wide out to lose the race narrowly.

Bath`s 7/4 favourite Another Glory provided Alford to complete his day`s tally in the 1,400m Sunray Handicap, the concluding event. The winner proved far too good for the opposition in the end, in spite of Alford having the Glory of Dancer daughter settle four or five wide.

Alford could have increased his tally to four, had his horse, Lineage, a 7/10 favourite, justified short odds. The favourite took over the running from the early leaders, Ivy and Footloose but gave way to the late finishing Bharath`s 4/1 shot, Bournville (Dashrath), about 75m from home.