Irfan Ghatala trained Dinesa was a shock winner of the Krishnaraja Wadiyar Cup, the feature event on the opening day of the Summer Season. With two lacklustre performances during the winter season, this filly was allowed to run friendless in a small field of seven runners that faced the starter.The betting was confined to Mercurial, Brahmaputra, Diamond Hunter and Stylish Bay. The connections of Brahmaputra were worried about the top weight of 62.5 Kgs assigned to him. On the other hand,based on rating comparisons, Mercurial was touted as a racing certainty.

The race started with no hopers Buddy Brothers and Flying Rudolph taking charge in front and showing the way to a tightly packed bunch of fancied runners. Appu was seen to be aggressive on Diamond Hunter and pushed his
horse to the front as the field straightened for home. Christopher Alford on Mercurial was a picture of supreme confidence as he came cruising on the wide outside and sailed away from the pack at the 250 metres marker. It
seemed as though the rest were only fighting for place money, before Dinesa changed gears and went after Mercurial. Under the very strong urgings of Vinod Shinde, Dinesa started to gain ground with every stride and managed to pip Mercurial on the post. Brahmaputra found the pace to be too hot and plodded on to be a fair third. There was stunned silence in the stands as Dinesa was freely available at 50/1 in the betting ring. Mercurial lives to fight another day and should pick up a race in the near future. Diamond Hunter seemed to be in distress during the final stages of the race and should be left alone from a betting perspective for the rest of the season.

The day started with two back-to-back victories for horses owned by Dr Vijay Mallya. Both were trained by Attaollahi and ridden by the recently retained stable jockey Mallesh Narredu.The victory of Aquitaine seemed to be on the cards as there was inspired support for this horse during the morning.The horse was progressively backed down from 6/1 , to becoming the starting course favourite at 2/1. Since this was her first run, racegoers were keen to have a look at her in the paddock.She looked outstanding and raring to go. Mallesh had this filly on a tight leash for most part of the journey, and once he released the breaks on Aquitaine, she opened daylight between herself and the rest of the field. The ante-post favourite Pleasuring was seen to be hard ridden by Prakash, but she could do no better than finish a faraway second.Mint came from the rear to occupy the third slot.

The second success for this camp came when Salsera produced a stunning gallop and held on to win from a late finishing Star Presentation. The latter had come with an imposing record from Mumbai and was obviously
installed as a firm favourite in early morning trade but was soon displaced, once huge money was wagered on the well bred Enduring Star. There were murmurs about this being the first run of Star Presentation after being
gelded on 10th March, and how Enduring Star had worked extremely well in his morning trials. To summarize, Enduring Star started as the even-money favourite to win this race. Mallesh rode a clever race on Salsera as he took a keen jump and settled his filly on the rails ,as Royal Chief tried to make a start to finish bid to win this event. Srinath produced Star Presentation on the wide outside , while Wayne Smith was seen pushing Enduring Star to
keep in touch with the frontrunners. Salsera seized the opening on the inside and came through the shortest way to lead into the final stretch. Although Srinath and Star Presentation were putting pressure on the leader, Mallesh was not perturbed and kept his filly going to emerge as a comfortable winner of this race.Star Presentation looked a trifle gross in the paddock and should hugely benefit from this outing. Enduring Star was totally outclassed and should be left alone till he competes with a mediocre bunch of maidens.

Champion trainer Ganapathy started his summer campaign in a workmanlike fashion. With two runner-up berths in the above mentioned events, he won three races with his next three runners. All three of them were available at
cramped odds, but the victories were gained with a measure of comfort. Poetic won at the expense of Pied Harrier and Smart N Special. Srinath was a picture of confidence as he settled his mount in sixth position before
giving him a tap and taking over the running in the final furlong of the race. Star Wave was the secong leg of the treble and Prakash gave her a neat ride as the duo sailed away on the wide outside from a late finishing
Milagro and Repique. The most impressive runner in this event was Milagro,who was toiling at the rear end of the field and was disinterested in the proceedings. The horse dragged the jockey into second place and announced that he will be too good to miss in his next start.

Own Voice was the shortest priced runner of the day and confirmed his superiority over the rest with an authoritative victory. Prakash had the luxury of looking back repeatedly and the style of his victory indicated
that he is going to be a top class sprinter in the near future. Ganapathy thus completed a treble and shared the day’s professional honours with Trainer S Attaollahi and Jockeys Mallesh Narredu and B Prakash who had a
double each to their credit.

Pesi Shroff gave a feel of the Bangalore track to his champion filly Set Alight by running her in a mock race today. She won this race in great style and should start as a firm favourite in a Million race slated next week.