The two fancied runners, trainers Patrick Quinn`s filly Aquitinia (A. Imran Khan-up) and Javed Khan`s horse Star One (app. Nikhil Naidu) fought out a grim battle for supremacy in the 1,100m Swatantrata Cup, the main attraction in Saturday`s seven-event card. No prize for guessing that the senior horseman managed to outwit the fast learning apprentice who was not a disgraced in his narrow defeat. The afternoon, however, belonged to trainer Patrick Quinn, who notched out a priced treble, his first since returning to the main stream after serving a two-year suspension for a drug related offence.

It was A. Imran`s superior horsemanship on the 12/10 favourite, Aquitinia, who always chased the strongly fancied Star One – a 9/4 chance in the betting. However, the neck verdict between the two runners that was gained, virtually in the last stride, clearly indicated the anxious moments of the followers of the favourites in the final stages of the race. Incidentally, Naidu was not disgraced in the defeat but won many hearts.

In fact, it was Naidu who opened Quinn`s day`s account early in the afternoon. In the lower division of the 1,200m Imperial Stride Handicap Naidu made no mistake on Quinn`s fancied runner, So Regal, a 4/1 shot. Leading all the way, the six-year-old handed a solid drubbing to an overly rated Raunak Banerji-runner, Archivolt (C. Alford) who`s expanding odds, however, failed to inspire the knowledgeable circles. The 9/4 favourite was, in fact, no match, in spite of connections adopting the waiting tactics on a natural front-runner, Archivolt, who lacked class.

Quinn hogged the glory for his final Hurrah when A. Imran got inspired again to turn a sure defeat into an narrow victory on Spear Of Trium. Imran decided to chase a heavily backed Vikash Jaiswal`s front runner, Simran Choice, ridden by his brother, Vinay Jaiswal. It was again the last stride victory for Imran, who in the final 100m came abreast of the 18/10 favourite but lost some ground again, only return stronger for a long-neck victory, in the 1,200m Alcalde Handicap.

Jaiswal, nevertheless, had picked up his day`s quota as his less-fancied charge, Ivy, went kindly for brother, Vinay, in the upper division of the Imperial Stride Handicap. It was a run-of-the-mill kind of victory when the 6/1 chance was taken to the front from the start of the race to win convincingly.

Trainer Bharath Singh`s last outing winner, Shohin (Dashrath), however, was the easiest winner of all in the day`s card. Also ridden from the front, and eying for a back-to-back win in the line-up for the 1,800m Elistano Handicap, the heavily fancied three-year-old, however, shifted out badly inside the final 200m of the race, leaving Vikash`s Mariska (Akash Rajput) in command for a brief while. Dashrath being too old in the game managed to put the 11/10 favourite back on an even-keel to score untroubled.

Trainer Arti Doctor was also helped to a brace of wins by the champion jockey Christopher Alford. Starting off with an impressive victory of anther 11/10 favourite, Mocha Locha in the 1,400m Steal The Glory Plate, the champion jockey had to stress his aging muscles to beat a dual challenge from Kaartiken (app Rupal Singh) and Mustang (A. Imran). On both occasion Alford rode well-judged waiting races to his advantage.