Calcutta: The opening day of the Calcutta Cold Weather Season on Thursday belonged to trainer Neil Darashah, who scored a well-backed double.
The day’s feature event — the 1,600m Aazish Cup — saw Neil’s bottom-weighted Natural Grace (Akshay Kumar-up) upstage the on-money favourite Snowpiercer (Suraj Narredu-up), who faltered once again despite adopting start-to-finish tactics. Top-weighted Great Guns also finished strongly to pip the Patrick Quinn-trained runner for the second berth.
In the concluding event — the 1,100m Bold Chieftan Handicap — Neil’s Kerrygold (J.H. Arul-up), who received one-sided support, produced a late burst to collar runaway Bundle of Charm (Md Imran-up) in the shadows of the post.
Earlier in the afternoon, Javed Khan’s Jamaica (R. Vaibhav-up) justified favouritism with a fluent win.
The Starry Flag Handicap went to Rajesh Narredu’s Dance Along, who cruised home impressively under Suraj Narredu. Going by her current fitness, Dance Along appears to be on course for a hat-trick.
Vikash Jaiswal’s Dancing Queen registered an easy victory in the 1,400m Comedy of Errors Handicap. Make a note of Soul Aquarian, who found her rhythm rather late, while Mohsin unfortunately burst its blood vessel.
Well-supported Rutherford Alford’s Kay Star ( Imran Chisty) finally struck gold in the 1,100m Daring Don Handicap, scoring a pillar-to-post victory. Bottom-weighted Clever Hans finished a good second ahead of Sabar.
Before the start of the first race a minute's silence was observed in memory of two legends of Indian racing - trainer S.Padmanabhan and jockey Aslam Kader, who both passed away earlier this month.