Trainer Shyam Habbu’s filly, Iverness, scored a decisive victory in the 1,200m Oakmead Cup, on Tuesday. The Mull Of Kintyre daughter found her galloping shoes after two below par performances over trips beyond six furlongs. Ridden by jockey Kishore Kadam, who rode the 3-1 chance, made no mistake after a hot-chase of the 6-4 favourite, Rising Power, a speedy customer who found the last 150m of the race a trifle taxing and surrendered. The favourite at the same time exposed him about his distance limitations, though jockey Imran Chisty tried every trick up his sleeves on the speedster– from slowing down the pace to varying it to his advantage.

The afternoon’s eight-event card, however, had its share of favourites and the sizeable Tuesday race crowd did not rue about victories of long-shots like Elusive Thoughts, Saddle Chiefs and Chalaques, particularly the first named horse, who responded kindly to the good upkeep and regular attentions, having switched stables, lately. It is another matter that even his impressive turn outs failed to attract wagering, thanks to his past record. Chalaque, on the other hand, targeted ambitious plans, despite being short on experience but his return to the Class, in which he had made a winning debut, paid handsome dividends. In the 2,000m San Francisco Handicap, the Manvendra Singh-trained horse remained neglected at 5-1, in spite of P. Kamlesh in the saddle. The Diamond Green son was ridden well off the pace and covered much ground in the final 400m to retire as an easy winner over Abarth and Rembrandt who got an equal amount of support in the betting. In the same race, the course favourite, Adoringly was also ridden in a good check but lacked the acceleration and placed a poor fifth.

Trainer Bharath Singh must have been a pleased man after leading in Saddle Chief, the winner of the 1,400m Little Lady Handicap (Div-II). The horse returned to the winner’s enclosure after many months. Jockey Shezad Khan, who partnered the winner, had the six-year-old settled behind the runaway leader, Break The Habit, till the front runner burnt himself out and surrendered to the Bharath’s long-shot. Rise Above who produced a sparkling performance in his last outing, lacked the acceleration displayed by the winner.

Elusive Thought, in contrast, finished full of running from the near rear-end, and on the wide out to stump the early leaders, Apyrous and Apple Candy, to win the 1,100m Relevance Handicap.

Sartaj, Mutimagic, Ice Fantasy and Signor Sassi were the few who brought smiles on punters faces as they delivered the goods in their respective events. Sartaj was a medium of heavy gamble in the curtain raiser, the upper division of the Little Lady Handicap. Although slowly out of the blocks, the 5-2 favouite, was quick to be up with the leaders, Evening Mist and Dance In China. The Daniel David-trained horse led into the home straight and drew away from the field.

Trainer Arti Doctors, Multimagic carried the public-faith and the winner’s penalty in his stride as the big-made colt, was the winner at every post of the 1,100m Romantic Eve Plate. In the process of victory, the Multidimensional son handed a sound beating to his half-brother, Amarilla, a 2-1 debutante from trainer Vijay Singh’s stable.

Ice Fantasy, helped Bharath notch up a double, on his way to back-to-back victory. The horse was hard-pressed to beat Marauder, in the 1,400m Ambretta Handicap and jockey A. Sandesh must consider himself lucky to have the measure of the long-priced opponent, in view of apprentice Azharuddin failing to keep the horse on an even-keel and loose by a long-neck

Signor Sassi, too presented his mentor Manvendra, with a double -- the trainer having already saddled a winner, Chalaque, early in the afternoon. It was Kamlesh again who partnered the winner, in the 1,100m Surfside Cup, after galloping the even-money favourite six-wide all through the journey.