Calcutta: Christmas cheer spilled over onto the turf at RCTC as punters enjoyed a Boxing Day bonanza, with six hot favourites and a second favourite obliging on a thrilling seven-race card. The day, however, belonged to trainer Aashay Doctor, who celebrated a richly deserved hat-trick courtesy Meropi, Magnifico and Cigar Galaxy.
The main attraction, the 1,400m Army Cup, witnessed a classy display from Meropi, the five-year-old Western Aristocrat mare who returned to her home centre and stamped her authority in style. Shadowing the pace-setter Black Eagle through the seven-furlong contest, Meropi cruised into contention before quickening decisively in the straight. Under a confident Mukesh Kumar, she surged clear to score with plenty in hand, while Vincent Van Gogh battled on to finish second ahead of the long-time leader Black Eagle.
Doctor then completed a clean sweep of the 1,600m Twilight Lady Handicap, landing both divisions with authority. In the upper division, Magnifico (R. Vaibhav) unleashed a powerful late run down the outside to collar Immortal Beauty and win going away, with Global Fashion finishing an eye-catching third. In the lower division, favourite Cigar Galaxy (Mukesh Kumar) thundered home in the final furlong to overhaul runaway Paulite Warrior (Hindu Singh) for an effortless victory that hinted at more to come, thus enabling Mukesh to complete a double for the day.
The 2,000m General A.S. Vaidya Memorial Cup went strictly by the book as Pesi Shroff-trained Duesenberg (A. Prakash) coasted home impressively by five lengths. Prakash struck again soon after, steering the well-supported Shyam Habbu-trained Abhicandra to a rousing win in the 1,200m Unknown Warrior Cup.
The afternoon opened with Suraj Narredu setting the tempo with a commanding all-the-way win aboard B. Mahesh-trained Cristaldo. Ignore the run of Godsend Divine, who found the outing coming too soon to her liking. Suraj completed a well-backed double on S. Narredu’s juvenile Monumental with an easy pillar-to-post victory, while Saiko, despite running green, finished a good second.
Incidentally, The Telegraph tipped all the day’s winners as first choice.