Popular owner Haresh Mehta landed a lucrative double with Needforspeed in the first race and Dynamic Cat in the fourth to mark his birthday on the Derby Day. The former was backed down to cramped odds and Daniel Grant, who is enjoying quite a successful streak, showed plenty of confidence and composure while guiding Needforspeed to a comfortable victory in the Isle of Jura Cup. Racing seventh out of 12, Grant improved to third as they turned for home. The Rebel (Kishore) pretended to make a fight of it and the favourite took a while to shake him off. However, in the final furlong, Needforspeed drew away and won well. The Rebel was second while the reliable Latest News came into place money.

Dynamic Cat and Casual Look looked a safe ‘jodi’ to wage on in the fourth race and that notion was spot on. Mirror Image hit the front and was closely followed by Dynamic Cat and Ecofisk; Casual Look was right up with them. As they turned for home, Mirror Image’s lead was fast dwindling as Casual Look perched alongside, Dynamic Cat was warming up and there was no other threat in sight. Past the distance post, Casual Look shot into the lead but was not accelerating as he did in his last start enabling Dynamic Cat to catch the judge’s eye first, thus handing owner Haresh Mehta a well deserved 50th birthday gift. Mazan covered quite a bit of ground to peg back Mirror Image for the third.

Personified justified the favouritism and won without a fuss. Sitting right behind the leader Calling The Shots, Prakash took over early in the straight and rode out to a confident victory. Chardin, who raced in the rear for the most part, started to bridge the huge gap and closed in to finish runner-up just over a length behind. Fantastic Fury was hard ridden and punished throughout to claim the place money ahead of Calling The Shots. Personified is now on a hat-trick and it won’t be surprising if he pulls one off later this season.

The Whyte & Mackay Challenge saw a three-way close finish. Destined Prince was on a start-to-finish mission and Urban Warrior followed him most of the way. Eagle Mountain was next with Phoenix Rising. In the straight, Destined Prince and Urban Warrior began a long battle and broke away from the rest. Past the 200 metres mark, as Tograllu and Alam were sweating it out, Fargeat got Eagle Mountain to respond and the gelding quickened closer home, which was far too late. Urban Warrior just managed to dethrone the Prince by a narrow half length margin. Eagle Mountain ended a neck shy of Destined Prince but showed signs of getting into good form.

The R.N. Kanga Gold Trophy took off with a mishap. As the horses jumped out, Rhapsidion Snow stumbled a bit thereby unbalancing the rider and dislodging jockey Ranjeet Singh who fortunately escaped major injury. Beyond Belief showed early speed to lead, Secret Memory was next with Diego Rivera close on the fence and Samarkhand on the outside. Entering the straight, Diego Rivera stormed past Beyond Belief, who was himself travelling well at that stage but was clearly overwhelmed by Diego Rivera’s superb burst. Secret Memory slipped out of contention and Samarkhand ran on to finish third. Diabolical, who had on this day last year created ripples by winning the McDowell Indian Derby 2007, broke a blood vessel and ended fourth. Diego Rivera impressed and is shaping out to be a top-class miler.

Kiara has been knocking on the doors, having found one better in all her three previous starts. Showing good early speed, Kiara wrested the lead from Juventus and was joined by Lord Kala. Own Voice was racing in the rear bunch. Kiara sped ahead in the straight; Rajendra kept her going, and past the distance post, established a handy lead. Juventus tried his best to catch up but in vain. Own Voice covered good ground to finish close behind Juventus and is the one to note.   

Schnell was the popular choice to win the Dalmore Cup and cornered most of the betting. Schnell got covered by the field eager to get to the rails and his near side draw put him in an awkward position fighting to get ahead but no room to go all the way to the straight. From there on, it became a Herculean task for Dettori to make a race of it and Schnell ended in the dumps. Avec Plaisir, who was a handy fourth till turn, made his appearance near the 400metre mark and shot ahead with a bunch of horses eager to pounce on her. However, DeSouza managed to egg her on and warded off a stiff challenge close home form World War Three and Hazelhead after Aquadisiac failed to quicken. Hazelhead was the pick of the beaten horses and so too was World War Three. Hazelhead came from the tail end of the field, progressing between horses and ought to be taken seriously in her next outing.

Trainer SS Shah capped the icing on the cake after a successful Derby campaign, by saddling public fancy Uruj to score a fine double. Uruj put paid to the fears of a lethargic start and this time jumped even and got into the groove. Steadily improving his position, Uruj was ready to strike and put in his best from the distance post to score a decisive victory disputed all the way in the straight. Temptation, who got a clear rail run, couldn’t make most of it and had to be content with the runner-up berth. Johnny Bravo, who all along chased Mubarras till the straight, also put up a brave fight but failed to sustain it till the end. Golden Orra covered some ground to finish fourth and would have relished an extra furlong.