Captain Cook put his best foot forward, on Wednesday, after half-a-dozen of failures. The Bharath Singh-trained horse was ridden to a decisive victory by Trevor Patel in the 1,600m RWITC Cup, the day`s feature event. The afternoon also witnessed trainer Vijay Singh`s hardly reliable horse, Jupiter (Neeraj Rawal-up), put in a spirited performance to land the 1,400m Bengal Area Cup. Both horses took the shortest road to victory – from pillar-to-post.

Known to be strong finisher in waiting races, Captain Cook made his own running, the tactic which upset the rhythm of another front running horse, Acrider, the 14/10 public-choice. Needless to say the changed tactics paid off handsomely for the 9/4 shot in the betting. So much so, the tiring Acrider proved no good when challenged by Copernicus for the minor placing.

Similar tactics also helped Vijay`s top-weighted runner, Jupiter land the goods in the 1,400m Bengal Area Cup. The five-year-old, however, had to be fully stretched to stave off a dual challenge of Adhirajsingh Jodha`s Night Of Stars (Nirmal Jodha) and Vinay Lagads`a Magic In The Air (apprentice Jorawar Singh).

Neeraj firepower was tested again, an hour later, in the upper division of the 1,200m Fame Star Handicap which was claimed by trainer Harvinder Singh Bath`s quietly fancied filly, Zena, who also adopted start-to-finish tactics to a relatively easy victory. The Rebuttal daughter was, however, faced threat from the very start from Vijay`s strongly wagered Nashvilletennessee, ridden by Trevor.

Similar tactics, pillar-to-post, nearly paid off in the lower division of the Fame Star Handicap. Bath`s 4/1 shot (Neeraj) called the shots till about 50m from home but failed in a blanket-finish when the two heavily backed runners – Amazing Maria (Arman Khan) and Ambries (C. Alford) put in an inspired run to stump the leader at the post. Amazing Maria`s winning efforts was indeed praiseworthy, in view of the Herculean weight of 62ks the filly was carrying. Ambries, too, was impressive in defeat as the Burden of Proof filly was running after nearly after nine months.

If leading from the front to victory was the winning formula in the later half of the eight-event card, such tactics worked to the disadvantage of most in the early half.

The western India migrant, Red Bug (apprentice N.B. Kuldeep), from Vinay Lagad`s yard, for instance, found the going tough when pushed into the lead in the 1,400m Arabian Prince Handicap. The Noverre son showed the way to Vijay`s favourite Fabienne (Neeraj) and the ultimate winner, Taygetus (Alford), who scored for trainer Arti Doctor the way he liked.

Alford also guided Vijay`s fancied runner Romantic Society to victory while guiding the China Visit filly well off the pace as Famous Attack and the two horses in the betting-- a strongly debutant Queen`s Command and Balvenie -- made most of the running.

Trainers Javed Khan`s and Manvendra Singh`s babies are always known to perform well in their first season. Therefore, it hardly came as a surprise when their respective charges Adi`s Delight and Tiberon – the least fancied runners in the field of four -- fought out the finish in 1,100m Desire Plate. The verdict went in favour of Javed`s Adi`s Delight who covered plenty of ground in the final 250m to down Tiberon in a close finish. In the same race, Vijay strongly fancied Surgical Strike (Trevor) ran a wayward race from the start while the Rutherford Alford`s 13/10 favourite called the shots till a furlong from home before the long-priced paid walked into the fray.

Trainer Vikash Jaiswal Change The Game (Sandeep Rajput) failed to justify wagering in the day`s opener, the 1,100m Rising Bell Handicap. The horse not only found the slated scurry as a bit too short to her liking, she also took a slow start. The race was won by Dipak Karki`s Footloose (Munna Alam) who allowed Horsea (apprentice Jorawar Singh) to dictate the terms till a furlong from home before skating clear of the opposition.