Four-year-old Golden Neil treated his older rivals with utter disdain when he posted a start-to-finish victory in the Gamble For Love Trophy, the feature event of the opening day of the Pune monsoon racing season 2023. The Narendra Lagad ward, who went to the gates as an on-money public choice, jumped out smartly to hit the front, setting fast pace despite wet racetrack, and on turning for home, lengthened his stride to score a runaway victory. Golden Neil was confidently ridden by Mustakim Alam, who had also won the first race on the card with Zip Along for the same trainer, thus the trainer-jockey pair recording the season's first double.

Trainer Hosidar Daji won the upper division of the Season Opener Plate with Brave Beauty (K Nazil up) at the lucrative odds of 7-to-1, but frankly admitted in a chat after the race that he was "pleasantly surprised". Trainer SK Sunderji claimed the other division of the same race with three-year-old Ameerah (Neeraj Rawal up).