Bharath Singh-trained Sangfroid stamped his superior class on her way to winning the 1,100m Dasho Lhendup Dorji Memorial Cup, Friday`s main attraction. Jockey Dashrath Singh, who partnered the 7/1 shot to a narrow victory, in an open-betting race, also notched up a priced treble in the eight-event card. Dashrath`s other winners were Panchovilla a 7/2 favourite and Desert Falcon 6/1 chance.

Dashrath made Sangfroid`s victory look easy despite losing some ground at the start, because of an angular jump out. As a result of this the filly fell back to the rear and was having to gallop six-wide, almost through the entire journey as trainer Vikash Jaiswal`s speedster, One Man Army (app. Pandula Vikram-up) called the shots, with Millenium Glory (Hindu Singh) and Roman Flames (app. Nikhil Naidu) in company.

The order of running hardly changed; until the field turned for form but One Man Army was getting stronger in front as they passed the distance-post. At this point of time, Dashrath got Sangfroid to devour the ground, on the wide out, to cover almost eight lengths to pip the leader, and the rest in the field, barely 30m from home.

Dashrath, in fact, notched up the last treble-event in the day`s card. Starting off with the easy victory of Vijay Singh`s Panchovilla, in the 1,600m Touch of Silver Cup, the champion jockey wrapped off his day`s engagements, with a hard-earned victory on Bharath`s another charge, Desert Falcon, in the 1,200m Artemis Handicap, the concluding event.

Panchovilla, too, had to be ridden hard, to maintain his narrow lead; which was established after taking over from the speedy Gift of The Gab (Asghar) at the top of the final turn. The 7/2 favourite, though was shifting out in the home-stretch, kept clear of the threat from an equally fancied The Big Bull (P.S. Chauhan).

Desert Falcon provided the jockey with the last hurrah but Dashrath had to win the race again in the steward`s room following an objection lodged by trainer Daniel David`s 7/1 chance, Alshafa (Ashhad Asbar) who claimed interference at the very start, resulting being nosed-out at the all important end.

Interferences at the start, do turn out significant and the likes of Curtis (Afzal Khan), another one from Danny`s stable, and the 6/4 favourite, Akshya (Hindu Singh) have the same story to narrate. Both named horses were chopped off from each-side drawn horses and fell back to the rear. Interestingly, both of them made late attempts but missed out the winning brackets narrowly.

Culprits in these cases must be dealt with iron hand, else it may become a routine and unique task fixing favourites at will.

Panchovilla apart, trainers Richard Alford`s True Genius (Ranidan Singh), in the day`s opener, the upper division of the Tokaido Express Handicap, and Raunak Banjerji`s Prolific Visit (C. Alford), in the 1,600m Mossy Bear Cup, were the other two favourites who managed to deliver the goods on the day.

True Genius had to fight a tooth and nail battle with the long time leader, Amaranthus (app. R.S. Bhatti) – from Arti Doctor`s stable while Prolific Visit responded late to his jockey`s urgings to beat another late finisher, Prince Of Hearts (Hindu) and the front-running Athletico (Dashrath) to win by a length.

Apprentice Ranidan returned to the winners` enclosure as he guided trainer Shafiq Khan`s long-shot, Constance, to a narrow but facile victory in the 1,400m Star Flame Handicap. The Admiralofthefleet filly also responded late to the jockey`s urging. In fact, Ranidan was seen working on Constance right from the 1,000m marker before having the measure of the 2/1 favourite, Heading Glory(C. Alford), who led almost from the start and was being hailed as a winner.

Trainer Dipak Karki`s Logano (Mahesh) also walked on the scene late to put pay the winning chances of Danny`s another runner, Red Bug (Asbar) in the 1,200m Royal Challenge Handicap.

Trainer Javed Khan`s Xipen (B. Mahesh) made every post of the lower division of the 1,200m Tokaido Express Handicap a winning one, beating Vijay`s 11/4 favourite, Shafer (app Nikhil Naidu), narrowly, after a long tussle, inside the final 200m of the race.