Calcutta: Aashay Doctor trained-Meropi (Y.S.Srinath-up) claimed the Calcutta Million over 1600m, the feature event here in Saturday’s card. Srinath, the visiting jockey, was the lone professional who scored a double, in the six-event card that was on the whole dominated by the popular winners.
Meropi, the Western Aristocrat -Panamera filly, was quoted at 10/2 on, trounced her three rivals without raising a sweat. Vijay Singh's Super Stride (Imran Chisty) who led from the start, finished second while Acantha (Suraj Narredu) found the mile trip too much to handle and was third.
Half an hour earlier, Srinath had guided another market fancy, Jawai, to a two lengths plus victory over the quietly fancied Thar (Imran Chisty) and the first timer Mandela (Hindu Singh). Bharath Singh trained the winner.
The Indian Air Force Cup over 2000m, saw Vijay Singh saddling three of the four runners declared to start. However, Leonardo got all round support to close at evens but it was Monteverdi, the favourite’s stable-mate, who caused an upset with a brave start-to-finish effort, to score by a short head, after being headed by the favourite, nearing the closing stage.
Hindu excelled in the saddle astride the winner. In the same race, the top-weighted Presidential lost all his chances at the gates, leaving Cold Pursuit to take the third spot.
Shyam Habbu’s Taimur’s Choice scored an encore in the Eastern Air Command Cup, giving jockey R.S.Bhati a morale boosting win. A consistent Jean Lafette, once again, met one better in the race, while the last start winner, Castillo, finished third.
The opener saw C. Alford trained, Musical Sound (Nikhil Naidu), scoring an upset win over the battling fancied duo of Sun God and Daddy’s Dream in the shadows of the post.
The concluding event witnessed Vikash Jaiswal’s friendless Shivalik Silk (Sujit Paswan) getting the better of favourite Tres Bien (Imran Chisty) by half a length, while Vijay’s Island Lass finished third. She will earn her corn bill soon.