Trainer Vijay Singh’s 6/1 shot, Monfortino (Imran Chisty-up) scored a narrow victory over Aashay Doctor’s strongly fancied runner, Hidden Gold (Akshay Kumar), to win Thursday’s main attraction, the 1,200m Eastern Command Cup. A small but compact six-event card, therefore, turned out to be quite exciting and enjoyable one in view of tough competition in most of events. Vijay, however, was among winners again and as he scored a treble. The trainer’s other winners were Yazh and Tycoonist -- both partnered by the champion saddle artist, Suraj Narredu.

Monfortino, a 6/1 shot, may not have attracted attention in the betting market but the jockey’s, Chisty’s intention was clear, right from the start as he positioned the seven-year-old, right behind early speedsters, Exotic Queen (app Prathvi Singh) and Full Volume (Alex Rozario) till turning for home. Shooting into the winning lead, 250m from home, the Leitir Mor son just about lasted out to beat the Akshay Kumar-ridden favourite, Hidden Gold while the rest of the field was left far behind.

The other two Vijay’s winners – Yazh and Tycoonist -- merely completed the formality of winning their respective events – the 1,200m Bengal Sub Area Cup and the 1,400m Army Service Corps (ASC) Cup.

Yazh made no heavy weather of her two-length-plus victory when taken to the front from the start of the race. Tycoonist, on the other hand, allowed Thar (Prathvi) and Magnite (R.S. Bhati) to dictate terms till about turning for home and before coming the shortest into the straight to win he liked for his maiden victory. Jawai, who was always behind the winner, finished so, albeit four lengths behind.

In a battle of sexes between in the Dali colt, La Dominate (Akshay), and the Alokananda Stakes’s winner Kind Of Magic (Suraj), it was the masculine power that prevailed, and with authority, to land the 1,100m Hongkong Jockey Club Cup. La Dominate was taken to a start-to-mission and he was sighted as a winner, a long way from the winning post. Give some more time to the filly. She is in safe hands and will definitely bounce back to form with maturity.

Trainer Suraj Shaw’s top-weight runner, Cold Pursuit (Rozario) had scored -- over Imtiaz Sait’s Full Of Grace (Chisty) and Javed Khan’s Arrow Point (S. Saqlain) -- in his last outing but was stripped of the winning honour, avenged the defeat with ease. It was a fast-run race but the opposition, visibly tired, produced indifferent form.

In the day’s opener, the 1,100m Cavalry Cup, trainer Rutherford Alford’s pair of Swift Lady (Chisty) and Jinsoku (Akshay) decided the outcome of the race. The verdict went in favour of the former, a youthful filly who, just about managed to come good when Jinsoku was being hailed as a winner.