Trainer Vijay Singh’s filly, Avarua (Ashhad Asbar-up), claimed the 1,400m Acorn Stakes, Saturday’s main attraction in the eight-event exciting card. Early in the afternoon, Vijay’s another baby, Pothus (Dashrath Singh), had demolished the opposition in the Artwork Plate. The day was otherwise ruled by trainer Vikash Jaiswal who notched up a priced treble, leaving punters looking for covers. On the whole, long knives ruled the afternoon as none of the clear favourites was sighted close to the winning-post.

The 3/1 fancied runner’s, Avarua’s victory, in fact, was made easy by the firm 12/10 favourite, Sangfroid (Trevor Patel), who detested waiting tactics after registering back-to-back two wins from the start. It wasn’t, perhaps, Trevor’s day as the champion jockey remained luck-less throughout the afternoon.

The opposition, in the other baby race, was no match for the vastly improved Pothus (Dashrath). The Midnight Interlude colt was a handy fourth behind the course favourite, Rufus (Trevor), Fab Bullet (Md Islam) and Gryffindor (C. Alford) till about a furlong from home, before skating away from early leaders.

Dashrath, however, had to stretch his muscles on a 11/2 chance Leopard Creek while taking the measure of his badly drawn stable-mate, Aquitania (Trevor), in the 1,200m Indian Airforce Cup; which had attracted 14 runners.

In another 14-horse strong event, the Easter Air Command Cup, over an identical distance, two rank-outsiders – Magic In The Air (app. Jorawar Singh) and Running Hand (Hindu Singh) fought out the finish but the former just about managed to win. In the same race, trainer Pesi Shroff’s Rainbow Dash (Trevor) ran out of steam after calling the shots till about a furlong from home.

Jaiswal’s Juggernaut started rolling from the second race onwards after My Lady Luck (Akash Rajput), finally, managed to find the target, having let down following on numerous occasions in the past. The Dancing Forever filly made every post of the 1,100m Tug Of War a winning one, leaving trainer Javed Khan’s quietly fancied Xipen (apprentice P. Vikram) in a wild goose chase).

Jaiswal’s two runners, Jacknife (Sandeep Rajput) and Antonius Maximus (app. Nikhil Naidu) won back-to-back races, the last two events – the 1,100m Vijay Sicka Memorial Cup and the 2,000m Robin Hood Handicap – respectively. While Jacknife was a form horse, Anotonius Maximus’ victory was a bolt from the blues that punters had to take it with a pinch of salt.

The curtain raiser, in fact, had served a serious warning as to what was to follow when Harvinder Bath’s long-shot, Glorious |Run (Shezad Khan) won the 1,100m Aphoroze Handicap. Shezad secured a favourable fourth position, from a wide outside draw in the 12-horse field. The Rebuttal son went on to cash in on his late run to beat another long-priced runner, Ivy, also from Vikash’s stable, ridden by brother Vinay.