As many as five professionals--three horse trainers and two jockeys--celebrated their Christmas in style at the Pune racecourse by scoring a double each. The three schoolers were veteran Narendra Lagad, the hard-working Shiraz Sunderji and young Karthik Ganapathy; while the two jockeys who matched their feat were A Sandesh, the usual suspect, and an humble T S Jodha who hasn`t hit headlines in years, or perhaps decades, on the western India racing circuit.

The last-named rode a back to back double which included the day`s supporting event, the Conrad Pereira Trophy, named after the man who had put in long years of distinguished service, officiating as judge for the races. T S Jodha drove the Himmat Singh-trained Sandalphon to an effortless victory, replicating the same feat he had accomplished with the same horse on the opening day of the season a month ago.