Hall Of Famer was first, in the 2,400m Calcutta Derby Stakes, and the rest were nowhere. It tells the Derby story in a nutshell about trainer S. Padmanabhan’s prized horse who was given a faultless ride by jockey David Allan, on Sunday. Defying odds about her suspect stamina, the grey daughter of Win Legend-Elusive Trust, comfortably stayed the Derby trip. In fact, the 11/10 favourite, Accolade (Trevor Patel), from trainer Pesi Shroff’s stable, cut a sorry figure in the department of stamina, leaving Calcutta Oaks and the 1000 Guineas winner, Silver Beauty (Suraj Narredu), deprived her western India compatriot, of the second slot in the final placings. Bharath Singh’s Seredine (Dashrath Singh) claimed the fourth place to make the Derby results almost look an all fillies affair.

Padmanabhan has made it a habit of winning the city Derby and Calcutta is his main port of trust, en-route to the coastal city, Mumbai, for the Indian Derby, about a month later. Purists may have their reservations but Hall Of Famer may surely take some beating in the Mecca of all regional Derbies. Her runaway victory was a treat to watch and the 25000-odd Derby Day crowd in the RCTC was lucky to have witnessed the grand rehearsal about the big event on the first Sunday of February.

The Derby was run at a scorching pace and it hardly came a surprise when Hall Of Famer also fell a fraction short of breaking the course record of 2mins 28.069 secs clocked by Southern Empire, exactly a decade ago. Of course, the 5/1 shot was eased up inside the last furlong of the trip.

No pun intended but one can’t help mentioning that the jockeys line-up, assigned to do the donkey-work on Lochinivar (T.S. Jodha), Splash Proof (Neeraj Rawal), Dysnomia (P.S. Chauhan), Sans Prix (A. Sandesh) and I Told You Know (Louis Beuzelin) was indeed impressive. However, none of the mentioned names figured in the final four.

Those expected final four -- Hall Of Famer, Accolade, Silver Beauty and Seredine -- were, obviously ridden off the pace. However, the foursome made the headway nearing the home turn but passing the 600m marker, Allan prompted the Famer to take the charge of the running, bisecting Lochinvar and Splash Proof . The Famer was gone, skating clear, before the opposition realised at the top of the home turn. In the stretch run, Accolade was in hopeless chase of the winner; until Silver Beauty joined and passed the favourite, nearing the magic-eye.

Padmanabhan-Allan’s day started with a bang but shortly ended in a whimper when the stable’s In The Sunlight won the 2,000m Psychic Flame Cup, from Bubbly Bellini (S. Zervan), only to loose it in the stewards’ room. And rightly so because of a nasty interference suffered by the latter inside the last furlong. The infringement definitely broke the strides of Bubbly Bellini who went on to lose the race by a proverbial whisker.

It was trainer Bharath Singh’s day otherwise, thanks to jockey Trevor who helped his cause.

Bharath’s day started with the repeat victory of his baby, Gryffindor, in the1,100m Friends FM Cup. The Lucifer Sam daughter almost won from the start, and easily beat Raunak Banerji’s Stellanova (Jorawar Singh) who just about managed to keep Arti Doctor’s Glorious Leaps at bay nearing the winning post.

The 1,200m Dashmesh Stud Alokananda Stakes was an easy pick for Bharath’s 5/1 shot, Sangfroid (Trevor), who also made his own running, despite her statutory penalty, earned for the last win over Akshya, also a participant as a 12/10 favourite. Akshya, however, was never a threat to the winner, a Verenar daughter, as Raunak’s Danceress (Zervan) produced an inspired performance to place a good second, ahead of the favourite.

Bharath final moment of glory followed, right after the Derby, when his charge Captain Cook had the easy measure of Malesh Narredu’s heavily fancied runner, Shivalik Heroine (Suraj) in the 1,600m Madras Race Club Cup. It was the 9/4 favourite, Shivalik Heroin Heroine who made most of the running, with Captain Cook in the chase but in the final 100m the equation changed, in favour of Bharath’s charge, also a 5/1 chance in the betting, who scored by a shade over a length.

Raunak, finally broke the jink in the 1,400m Telegraph Cup; which was claimed by his charge, Arminus – sporting Khaitans’ colours, ridden by Zervan who also won three races on the day. Arminus was the first Khaitans’ trained by Raunak in the 2017 calendar and the young lad had reason to be smiling. Vijay, on the other hand drew a blank, a poetic justice, perhaps.

For the record Zervan, too, rode a very laborious race after Arminus was left to do too much in the final 300m race and yet managed to beat Zephire and Theo who were being hailed as winners, by their respective backers.

Zervan also rode Arti’s Mr Fogg’s to victory in a similar manner, delaying his challenge till the very last minute in the 1,200m Grand Turf Racing Trophy. The winner just about managed to beat Vikash Jaiwal’s top-weighted runner, Draco (Sandeep Rajput), and the long time leader, Dragon Of War, at the post.

David Allan was again in the winners’ enclosure in the concluding event, the 1,600m Club7 Cup; which trainer James Mckeown’s Everybreakingwave won in a close finish from Shafiq Khan’s Sweet Stone (T.S. Jodha).