The southern challenger, Satellite (Dashrath Singh-up), displayed superior acceleration on her way to winning the 1,400m Stewards Cup, Saturday’s feature event. In the process of her victory, the Burden of Proof mare, once again, had the measure, albeit, by a narrow margin, of the local champion horse, Evesham (Christopher Alford). The afternoon also witnessed, trainer Vikash Jaiswal’s ageing champion, No More Politics, making good use of his handicap advantage to down the Bharath Singh-trained fancied runner, Triumphus.

Evesham was ridden differently, on this occasion. The horse was made to gallop up with the field, instead of kept in waiting. The changed tactics were adopted after been humbled earlier by the visiting favourite, Satellite, who, however, struck to his normal style, of running -- well off the pace. Evesham galloped close behind the long time leaders, Make Way For Me (Nirmal Jodha) and Acrider (S. John), before being sent into the winning lead, inside the final furlong. However, the moment Satellite changed the gear, the gap between the even-money favourite and Evesham started diminishing. At the wire, it was only half-a-length that separated the two heavily fancied runners.

The 2,000m Malpensa Cup was claimed by the least fancied runner, No Politics Please (app. Ranidan Singh) in the seven-horse field. The nine-year-old was also given a judicious ride by the apprentice for whom it was a chance ride because of his fellow-apprentice, Akaash Rajput, being declared unfit to ride in a previous race. Ranidan brought the late-finishing No Politics Please into the fray, to win by a neck, when Triumphus (Dashrath) was being hailed as a winner.

Akash had a fall from the even-money favourite, Oath Of Allegiance, just when horses were being loaded for the Sans Ame Handicap. With the favourite out of the way, the race turned out to be an easy pick for trainer Daniel David’s Supreme Ruler (Mudassar Nazar) who almost made every post of the 1,200m race a winning one. Incidentally, another apprentice Hindu Singh, riding Shyam Habbu’s Seafarer, was also unseated from during the running of the race.
The day started with another mishap. In the 1,200m Turf Hawk Handicap, jockey Alford came a cropper when his 14/10 favourite, Kamchatka, from Bharath’s stable, apparently hurt his right hind pastern, and thus the fall. It happened in the final furlong of the race when the Kamchatka was in the third berth, and was making his move on the wide out. As a result of Alford’s unseating, trainer Jasbir Singh’s less-fancied runner, Leonardo (Rajinder Singh) won the race.

Alford, the brave, was, however, undeterred by the fall. He went on to steer Vijay’s 9/4 favourite, Santero (Alford) to a heart warming victory in the 2,000m Gloatik Handicap; in which, the field was reduced to five runners after the race-eve withdrawal of trainer James Mckeown’s Legendofthephoenix. Santero, ridden well off the pace, was brought with a late run to leave his rivals gasping for breath.

Jasbir pulled off a quiet gamble on Rewalding (Mohit Singh) in the baby race, the 1,400m Antonique Plate. The horse looked impressive in his victory, thanks to the fancied runner s going all over in the final stretch.