The 26th renewal of the 1200-metre Sir Howard Stakes was featured on the nine-race card with 10 colts and geldings, each given the opportunity to stake a claim as genuine Classic aspirants.

Trainer Anthony Nunes must have been well satisfied with the performance of Calculus (Dane Nelson). This colt hardly raised a gallop in the Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes last December finishing nearly eight lengths in fifth behind champion Further And Beyond also trained by Nunes.

This is a clear case of Calculus training on from two to three years and won with a display of genuine finishing speed from off the pace to win a shade cleverly.

Emerging as a possible Classic hopeful is Regnant trained by Tensang Chung and schooled by Shane Ellis who was coming off an easy victory in his February 17 debut.

Regnant, who looked the likely winner entering the last 200 metres, fell prey to the more experienced rival. Assuming Further And Beyond has made normal improvement he will have little to fear in the upcoming futurities.

The 1100-metre opening event was won as expected by Baltusrol (Linton Steadman) for trainer Tyrone Prince to win his second race of the season while Qurandero (Tevin Foster) in its 15th start won the maiden 1600-metre second event for trainer Wayne Parchment.

American Dance filly True Al Sky perfectly schooled by Alford Brown did nothing wrong and responded to a typically smooth Shane Ellis ride to win the maiden 1100-metre third race.

Half an hour later Brown and Ellis combined to win the 1100-metre fourth with the improving Custer.

Trainer Joseph Thomas saddled his first winner this year when Miss Cooke (Nicholas Hibbert) was always clear in the 1000-metres straight fifth event. The five-year-old mare was making only her fourth racecourse appearance and her previous race was in September 2019.

Leading reinsman Dane Nelson kept his nerve and his balance to coax a one-length victory margin from Mamacita for trainer Ryan Derby in the 800-metre straight sixth event.

The seventh event run over the extended circular 1820-metre was rather anti-climactic with 11-year-old Hover Craft winning by 17 lengths for joint champion Anthony Thomas and stand-in trainer Jason, son of the ailing Wayne DaCosta. The second-generation trainer is doing an excellent job while his dad recovers. Front-running Patriarch (Dane Nelson) found the strong finish of US-bred Solid Approach (Omar Walker) irresistible in the 12000 metres eighth event.