Allowing Vijay’s Monteverdi (Hindu) to call shots, till about the half-way stage, Akshay niggled Imperial Power to come abreast of the leader and was gone in the home stretch, taking Trevor Patel, atop the 18/10 favourite, Ashoka (Trevor Patel), by a surprise. It took a while for Ashoka to react and it cost the beaten team dearly. In any case Ashoka is better known as one-paced horse and his early July, Hyderabad, defeat at the hands of Artemis Insignia confirms it all.

The 1,200m Calcutta Monsoon Sprint was for Agnostic’s (Trevor’s) asking. The Bharath Singh’s sprint machine carried his top-weight to another fluent victory, not only to make it four in-a-row but also warn the best in the business to watch out his progress. The Top Class-Kabini’s four-year-old waited patiently behind another speed merchant, Areca Legend (Rupal Singh) and was shown the daylight into the home stretch to go away from a steadily improving Awesome One (Neeraj Rawal) who, surely needed the run.

Vijay’s day started with the upset victory of Oasis (Hindu) . In the 1,200m Anticipator Handicap, the former Monsoon Derby winner, chased the long time leader, Trump Girl; until about 300m from home and away he went after a brief tussle with the last outing facile winner, D. Knight Mysore (Dhanu Deora) who was always with the front runners.

Secret Pearl (Hindu), a 6/1 shot, provided Vijay with a priced double. In the 1,200m Bountiful Talent Handicap, the concluding event, Secret Pearl chased the front running Indian Tiger (Vinay Jiaswal) and Eastside (Rupal) till about the home turn and improved to do the needful in the following furlong for a facile victory.

The last outing impressive winner, Roudy (A. Imran Khan) justified his short odds as he literally trounced his five rivals to win the 2,000m Alternator Cup. The three-year-old colt is in a great nick and he may do the trick again.

The day’s opener, 1,100m Arezzo Handicap was also an easy pick for Aashay Doctor’s solidly fancied Star Justice (Akshay), who had caught the eye in his day-one start. He followed the top-weighted Essos (Deora) in the early half and proved cut above the rest in home straight.