The western India challenger, Colombiana (A. Sandesh-up), landed trainer Malesh Narredu`s ambitious plans on his way to winning the 2,000m Indian Champion Cup, Monday`s feature event. A final entry, costing more than a million of rupees was at stake for the winner`s purse of Rs 27 lakh and the Noverre son fully justified the faith bestowed in him. He beat none other than trainer Suleiman Attaollahi`s 6/4 favourite Azzurro (Trevor Patel) who had build up some reputation over the long distance trips.

The afternoon also witnessed Trevor guiding trainer Bharath Singh`s Castlebridge to a bloodless victory in the 1,400m Champagne Stakes, thanks to a nasty accident early in the race. The infringement brought down three potential challengers – King Credible (T. S. Jodha), Rufus (David Allan) and the 5/2 Course favourite Anacapri (S. Zervan). Sadly enough, Jodha broke a collar bone and Zervan his leg as Allan, escaped with lighter injuries.

Coming back to the Champion Cup; Colombiana again lost some ground at the start but Sandesh nursed the 9/4 chance in the betting right behind the field; until the final turn. Switching the course on the wide out, the horse covered the ground in an amazing manner to get pass Azzurro, who was contesting the issue with Shivalik Shower, inside the last furlong.

Castlebridge made his own running, unaware of things happening behind. The horse was a length ahead of King Credible, early in the race, when the later clipped the heels of the leader and thus the fall. The rest was a chain reaction, resulting Anacapri`s and Rufus` falls.

Castlebridge, however, went about his task and gradually build up a long lead in the absence of any serious challenger in the field on nine.

In fact, a good number favourite adopted the pillar-to-post tactics and went on to win unchallenged. Trainer Vijay Singh`s 5/2 favourite, Cadman (Sandesh), for instance, made a similar effort to thrash Bharath`s Stevelena (Y.S. Srinath) in the 2,000m Republic Cup.

The story was no different in the concluding event, the 1,100m Star Contender Handicap which was claimed by Arti Doctor`s 9/4 favourite, Arctic Convoy, a chance ride for Ashhad Asbar who had replaced the injured Zervan. Acrtic Convoy had won his last start despite losing much ground at the gates. With a level start, on this occasion, he produced a champion-like performance.

Early in the afternoon. Trainer Javed Khan`s 4/1 fancy, Xited (B. Mahesh), also banked upon the start-to-finish tactics to trick his nine rivals to submission. The horse won by four long lengths despite shifting out badly.

David Allan, too, found the going easy for a back-to-back victory of trainer James Mckeown`s 14/10 favourite, Everybreakingwave, in the2,000m Real Danger Handicap. The mare not only carried the winning penalty, she also carried her 60-/2kg weight to a fluent pillar-to-post victory.

Trainer Raunak Banerji`s heavily fancied runner, King`s Crown (C. Alford), however, just about scraped home in the 1,400m Albert Piperno Memorial Cup. The four-year-old also made his own running to just about have the measure of trainer Vinay Lagad`s long shot, Magic In The Air (apprentice Jorawar Singh) whose late effort fell short by half-a-length.