The opening day of the Calcutta Monsoon Racing season on Friday vindicated the age old adage that ‘class always tell’. Aided by a scale drop of 5kg, quite a few runners found themselves pitted against mediocre opposition. Trainers Aarti Doctor and Javed Khan scored a double each as did Aarti’s jockey, D.K. Ashish from western India.

The first such horse to bring home the bacon on sheer class was Alarico, running in the Fair Ray Handicap. Having never before faced such poor opposition, the Javed Khan ward gave jockey Domingo an armchair ride. The far-sighted schooler had quite obviously planned his coup well in advance as the seven-year-old’s winter form varied from poor to appalling. Having been accepted in the lowest class, the property of Rajendra Kumar Pandey and Javed Khan simply skated clear after following the front-running Sea Siren till the turning for home.

The very next race, The Finalist Handicap, saw the piping hot favourite Swiss King runs a dismal race. The Robin Corner-trained colt was never in it with a chance. After finding his mount to be sluggish and languishing in fourth spot, rider Dinesh Singh tried to collar the front-runners at the turning for home. However, his effort came to nought as the fashionably-bred (Diffident-Cyclonic) property of Naresh Kumar and family was all at sea. In contrast, the Delhi import and top-weight Choice Own was simply cruising. Trainer Shafiq Khan left his visiting card on the opening afternoon in great style as his retained heavy-weight Imran Khan rode a copybook race. Reams of Gold was most impressive among the rest of the field and this ward of Farley Rodrigues bears watching.

The public choice which scored most comfortably on this day was the Aarti Doctor-trained filly Queen of Hearts running in the curtain-raiser. The somewhat frail filly ran like a champion and made every post a winning one in the hands of the competent Ashish. The top-weighted Zephyr was in futile chase of the winner all the way.

The fourth race of the day, The Woolver Valley Handicap, saw Art of War installed as the firm favourite. Though the six-year-old mare impressed by finishing a good second, she does not seem to be an apprentice ride. A couple of cracks from the whalebone may have done the trick when Gajender Singh atop front-running Arabian Music turned on the heat. The Richard Alford –trained mare kicked on merrily.

Three horses were backed in the Woolver Valley Handicap. These were Body and Soul, Helegonia and Winning Star. While the first two named fought out the finish, the last named ran like a dud and obviously lacked preparation. It was Javed Khan-trained Helegonia which prevailed under Islam’s strong handling.

Aarti and Ashish brought the curtain down in brilliant fashion with their classy chestnut Apostrophe. Like Alarico, this was another runner who stood head and shoulders above the field and his run proved it.