Pesi Shroff's Set Alight arrived from Mumbai with a tremendous reputation and was touted as the best three-year old filly in the country. She had won all her starts at her home centre, and in the process displayed her versatility by easily tackling a mile trip in her last outing. Dr Vijay Mallya saw the performances of his filly, and realizing that she was an exciting prospect in the Summer Classics, decided to bring her to Bangalore. Her astute trainer decided to give her a feel of the Bangalore track by running her in a mock race before pitching her in The Fernhill's Palace Juvenile Million (Grade II), the feature event in Sunday's racecard. She was opposed by many well-performed horses from across the country and was also set to concede weight to most of them. But the bookmakers were not ready to look beyond her and she was sent to the gates as the shortest priced favourite in recent history at this race course. Palazzio's Sun had run a decent third to this champion filly in Mumbai, and considering that he was at an advantage at the scales was quoted as the second-in-demand at 10/1. You could write your own card on the other runners.

The recently gelded Mark Of Gibraltar was pushed to the front ahead of Cassandra and Rare and Precious while Set Alight was relaxed into fourth place by Mallesh. Palazzio's Sun was tracking the favourite while the others were being pushed to keep pace with the leaders. Mark Of Gibraltar was given a couple of cracks by Chary and this good-looking horse quickened nicely to go a couple of lengths clear as they straightened for home. Mallesh seized a nice opening on the inside and the moment he asked Set Alight to quicken, the response was immediate. It ceased to be a contest thereafter as the favourite went away from the field. Mark of Gibraltar retained the second spot ahead of the hard ridden Palazzio's Sun. The nice-looking Royal Amber burst a blood vessel during the race. Set Alight will now participate in the Fillies Classic in mid-June. With hardly any opposition in sight for that race, she should start at extremely cramped odds. She is expected to face some sort of opposition only when she races in the Kingfisher Bangalore Derby.

A neat coup was executed in the opening race of the day. The second division of a race for maiden three-year olds had nine acceptors who had never touched the board .The presence of B Prakash in the saddle saw his mount Regal Ransom being opened as an odds-on favourite to win this race. Dhariwal's charge Marcegalia, which reportedly opened at 10/1, was backed heavily and reached the starting gates as the first choice of the punters. The presence of Lloyd Marshall in the saddle did not deter them since his astute trainer was moral on the horse. Dhariwal's judgement was proved right when Marshall took Marcegalia to the front and cantered away from the rest of the field. Regal Ransom and Stirring ran into place money. The upper division was a cakewalk for the Byramji-trained Safari. This filly had been unfortunate to come across some champion three-year olds in her winter starts. In fact, she was an odds-on choice in her last start when she had been slammed by Fleeting Arrow. Suraj had Safari on a tight leash as she made all the running and won easily from Pinaakini. The latter has been regularly running into place money and has perhaps won more stakes than any other maiden three-year old at this centre.

Another trophy event for maidens was the Ministerial Trophy to be run over 1,400 metres. This race saw the reappearance of the Darius Byramji-trained Shoot A Rainbow. In her first career start, this filly had run an impressive second to the highly rated Fleeting Arrow. She was considered a cinch for this race and was backed down accordingly. Ryan Marshall had her in box seat in the early stages of the race, before she dropped back alarmingly near the first bend. Shoot A Rainbow was the victim of severe interference from Noble View and Neel Gagan, as a result of which she was unable to perform at her best. Her inexperience was evident from the fact that she lost all interest in the race after this skirmish. Noble View apparently enjoyed the step-up in distance and trounced the opposition. Flair Queen came with a long stretch run and collared Caprioska to take the second spot. A sad incident marked the end of this race, as Full On collapsed after passing the winning post and died after a massive heart attack.

Suraj Narredu completed a double for the day when he guided Rimpuche to her third career success. This filly was fancied ahead of the Ganapathy-trained Valiant Bay. Srinath, who was declared to ride Valiant Bay, reported sick. It was strange to see Imran Khan replace Srinath on this horse. The first jockey of the stable, B Prakash, was available at the course to ride this fancied runner, but the trainer decided otherwise. Imran Khan gave a strange ride to Valiant Bay. He was slow at the gates, widest of all at the bend and feeble in the straight. The fact that the horse still ran a fair second is another matter. For the record, Rimpuche collared the front-running Act Smart with ease and sped away to win from a late finishing Valiant Bay. The other division of this sprint race was won by On A Roll. Appu loves to ride in front and On A Roll gave him the perfect opportunity to display his skills. This 8/1 outsider showed a clean pair of heels to the pair of fancied runners. Celestial Son ran a poor second while the Prakash-ridden Scenic Melody was not sighted in this race.

Van De Star was considered a good bet by the regular racegoers. This gelding had finished the runners-up in his last two starts and keeping in mind the fact that he was running over his best trip of a mile, was supported with great enthusiasm. Van De Star followed Agassiz into the straight before Vinod Shinde took him to the front. He was going well while Luckynumberslevin started to gain ground on his inside. The two of them were locked together as they flashed past the winning post. The judge ruled in favour of Luckeynumberslevin. Alchesaye cut an erratic course before straightening up and ran into third place.