Arjun Mangalorkar trained Salento who hasn`t put a foot wrong on the Malakpet racecourse lived up to the expectations of retaining his supremacy in the Wolf 777 Golconda Derby with an authoritative win over Dyf on Sunday. Salento who had also won the Deccan Derby in October thus completed a Derby double for M/s Arun Alagappan Racing LLP, Mr Rajendran rep Rapar`s Galloping Stars LLP, M/s Joydeep Datta Gupta, Rajan Aggarwal & Gautam Aggarwal who own the horse in partnership. Jockey Anthony Raj who has matured as a jockey in the last year, rode an impeccable race. The victory of Usha Stud Farm bred Salento also spoke volumes for the growing stature of his sire Speaking of Which.

Salento who was bidding for his fourth straight win at Malakpet shared favouritism with South India Derby winner Dyf though the former had beaten him when the two had clashed earlier in the season. Serdar who had unexpectedly run third in the South India Derby was the pace-setter with Sandesh going at a decent clip. Salento was settled about six to seven lengths adrift in about the sixth position while Dyf was shadowing him. Local challenger Kancha was in the penultimate position.

Salento was cantering when the field entered the homestretch. Anthony Raj quickly improved places even as Trevor too got busy on Dyf. Both were next to each other. Salento who had incredible speed and class took the gap faster and went sailing ahead. Dyf went in the chase but Salento who had established a winning lead by the final 100 metres was not going to be caught. Kancha came up with a late rally but narrowly failed to get the better of Dyf who stayed put in the second position. Hoping Cloud who was denied a clear run along the rails when the field bunched up ran on to finish the frame. Serdar ran out of his reserves in the stretch and finished last which was below expectations as he had run third to Dyf at Chennai. Salento clocked a smart time of two minutes 29.99 seconds.

The 1400 metres Royal Calcutta Turf Club, a race for maiden three-year-olds, proved to be eventual with Happy Soul, the on-money favourite, veering out at the start violently causing jockey Trevor Patel to be unseated. Caraxes led the field from the start and was in the front going into the final furlong. Truth, the progeny of Pinson, who was gracing the wrong end of the field, began to make rapid strides midway in the stretch in the hands of jockey Imran Chisty and finished with a big effort to storm clear in the final furlong. Encore got into his rhythm rather late and was successful in edging out the long-time leader Caraxes close to home.

Trevor Patel once again found himself on a favourite which failed to live up to expectations in the 1200 metres Madras Race Club Trophy (Div I), a race for horses rated 40 to 65. N Rawal trained Beauty Blaze was backed to the exclusion of the rest to end up as a short-priced favourite. The money on Beauty Blaze appeared to be disproportionate when one took into consideration the last run of the filly. Bellaque was the pacesetter with Leo D`Silva trained Carlisle handily placed behind the pace-setter while Beauty Blaze was in about the fourth position. Saqlain pushed Carlisle to take charge at the top of the straight. Carlisle surged ahead easily and was driven out to win the race by the Bangalore-based jockey Saqlain who went on to record his first on the Malakpet track. Trevor put all his might into his ride but the favourite found it hard to overhaul the front-runner. Doe A Deer, with a late dash, pinched the third place from Bellaque in the dying moments of the race.

Neeraj Rawal trained Unsung Hero pulled off a last stride win over favourite Maximum Glamour in the day`s opener, the 1200 metres Madras Race Club Trophy (Div II), a race for horses rated 40 to 65. The betting was cornered by Maximum Glamour and The Thunder who was strongly backed to battle it out for the spoils. Jockey Ashhad Asbar pushed The Thunder to take charge from the beginning with Maximum Glamour in hot pursuit. Unsung Hero was in the rear group. Inside the final two furlongs, Maximum Glamour was able to tackle The Thunder and surged ahead and shaped to win as the rest were far behind. However, Unsung Hero covered tremendous leeway in the hands of jockey Ajeeth Kumar and nailed the front-runner on the post. The Thunder, with a second wind, battled on to finish a close third. Incidentally, Ashhad Asbar had been fined Rs 3000 for not being enterprising on The Thunder in the previous run which perhaps could be the reason why Srinivas Reddy was backed with great enthusiasm so much so as to dispute favouritism.

Ravinder Singh trained Pal Cha obliged as a favourite in the 1400 metres Bangalore Turf Club Cup, a race for horses rated 20 to 45. Pal Cha was the favourite with Wandring Warrior also attracting equal support. Gaurav Singh had no hesitation in taking Pal Cha to the front. The favourite enjoyed an uncontested lead and kept on expanding the lead in the straight to go beyond the reach of the rest by the final furlong. Clefairy came from a long way back to be an impressive second ahead of last-start winner China Town. Wandring Warrior was not spotted to have any chance during the race.

The 1600 metres Turf Authorities of India Cup, a race for horses rated 60 to 85, witnessed an absorbing fight between stablemates Akido and Mark My Day. The former prevailed by a whisker in the final stride of the race. One could not make out what went wrong with favourite Ballerina who despite being handily placed at the top of the straight, failed to accelerate, her jockey Sandesh giving up, and the favourite eventually finishing last. Mark My Day who led by several lengths from the start had a good lead going into the final furlong when Akido, in the hands of jockey Akshay Kumar, finished powerfully. The two went past the post locked together. The camera showed that Akido, the lesser fancied runner from the stables of trainer Satheesh had indeed prevailed by the skin of his teeth. General Atlantic who lost considerable ground at the start recovered well enough to edge out Kesariya Balam to snatch third place. Another fancied runner, Royal Grace, who was poorly away from the gates, failed to recover from the setback at the start.

The spate of close finishes continued with long shot Unmatched pulling off a thrilling win in the 1200 metres Mysore Race Club Cup, a race for horses rated 20 to 45. Sopranos took a long while to overhaul OK Boss in the final furlong and seemed to have expended all his energy in doing so because when Unmatched came up with a late rally in the hands of jockey Mukesh Kumar, the favourite could not find anything extra. Fatuma led from the start and resisted till midway into the stretch before OK Boss took charge. OK Boss ran on resolutely before the favourite got the lead only to be beaten in the dying moments of the race by the long shot from the stables of Raza Shezad.

In another tight finish, long shot Candy Girl from the stables of Satheesh staved off the late bid of Fly To the Stars to win the 1800 metres Royal Western India Turf Club Cup, a race for horses rated 40 to 65. There was one-sided support for Vittal Deshmukh trained Path of Peace. Trevor tried to win the hard way by leading from the front on the favourite but Path of Peace had no answer when Candy Girl, from a handy third position, swooped on the front-runner inside the final 300 metres. Candy Girl surged ahead and had enough legs to stave off the rally made by Fly To The Stars. The winner was ridden by Nikhil. Path of Peace who weakened abruptly nevertheless managed to save place money from Just Incredible by a whisker.

Anant Vatsalya trained Das had finished a close fourth last time out and was backed to the exclusion of the rest in the 1400 metres Delhi Race Club Cup, a race for horses rated in the lowest category. The favourite readily obliged huge expectations with a powerful run down the final furlong to swoop past the front-running Samrat in the last 100 metres. There was a cluster finish for minor placings. Wot`s Up Joy came from the clouds to take the second position from Good Tidings who made a good rally along the rails. Samrat was relegated to the fourth position in a swiftly changing action.