The Indian Derby renewal this year looks very interesting towards the end of its lead-up, with the news of a setback for the favourite ridgling Sir Cecil who suffered a niggle, the emergence of the Multidimensional sired filly from the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, Adjudicate and the Indian Oaks winner Roberta coming back into form with a turn of foot. For the past few weeks an exciting Derby hype was being built up gradually, with discussions on who is going to win this year doing the rounds. Then came a setback for the Roberta camp with the RWITC vet not passing the filly fit for racing, her name was dropped at the Acceptance stage. The connections of Roberta filing and appeal and it being subsequently rejected by RWITC caused a lot of murmurs off the track adding to the Derby excitement. Kudos to the RWITC to sticking with their decisions and thereby restoring a semblance of hope among the lovers of the sport which has lost a lot of it’s credibility in recent times among its patrons.
The preparations are on full swing for the premier event in the country with the RWITC doing a fairly decent job of marketing the event even though it was having its own set of problems with police action on it’s licensed bookies, a huge drop in turnout forcing reduced stakes payouts and the collapse of the Giant Screen Display at the venue due to windy conditions. It could’ve been worse but a well-managed team has put it’s best foot forward to handle the situation and ensured that all glitches have been taken care of to holding a successful Derby racing weekend. The field this year has fourteen contenders vying for the greatest title in the Indian Racing calendar and each one is a champion in his/her own way.
Sir Cecil [Win Legend out of Elusive Trust] hasn’t put a foot wrong in his eight race career winning all of them and mostly by comfortable margins. He’s enjoyed the status of being the favourite to win the Indian Derby renewal of 2019 since as early as his win in the Bangalore Summer Derby in July last year and later his 2000 meters record breaking win at Mysore. His connections had initially planned to run him in the South India Derby at Madras and then in the Calcutta Derby leading up to the Indian Derby but a mismatched schedule of the Calcutta Derby forced a change of plan and the “Flash of Grey” as he’s called by his followers headed to Bombay for the Indian 2000 Guineas which opened up a possibility of having an Indian Triple Crown winner in him after nearly 2 decades with the last winner of the series being Smart Chieftan in 1999-2000. Sir Cecil won the 2000 Guineas but not in a convincing fashion that he’s known for and Jockey David Allan said immediately that he could’ve won with a larger margin. It was much later that the revelation came about Sir Cecil suffering a niggle during his preparation for the 2000 Guineas and had to run in bandages due to the injury. He was moved back to Bangalore after his win for the treatment of the injury.
He still heads the market to win the Derby but at a reduced price due to his niggle and lack of preparation with respect to work outs as he has been mostly absent in the morning trials. There are many rumours being spread due to this but his trainer S Padmanabhan is very sure that all is well with the grey and that he has fully recovered from the niggle to compete in the most important race in the horse’s Indian career. Padmanabhan has just won the 100th Classic of his career with his ward Indian Pharaoh winning the Golconda Derby Grade 1 at Hyderabad ridden well by his retained jockey David Allan. This team of Trainer and Jockey are overflowing with confidence with their recent successes. We can say with closed eyes that Sir Cecil will be the Champion Indian Horse on Sunday just like his sister Hall Of Famer in 2017 as long as the information provided by his connections is correct about his fitness condition.
Adjudicate [Multidimensional out of Alvarita] is being seen as the next best horse in the race due to the fashion of her wins at Calcutta in the 1000 Guineas, 2000 Guineas and the Calcutta Derby. The filly would be heavily backed to win by those who believe the rumours on Sir Cecil as being true. She is a Progeny of Multidimensional who has had a very successful year winning most of the classics in the country. Her trainer James E McKeown apart from having worked with top trainers in England has worked as assistant to S Padmanabhan and must have adopted skills learned from the master trainer into his training of this horse as the results speak. He is the step-son of the legendary English trainer Sir Henry Cecil who Sir Cecil is named after. Adjudicate will do well in this race and the only thing against her is the short time for travel and preparations she had after the Calcutta Derby. Running in the famous Khaitan family colours, she would be favoured a lot by the racegoers on the Derby Day.
Star Superior [Excellent Art(GB) out of Ramjet] has been the only horse that has ran close to Sir Cecil almost beating him once at Bangalore when he missed it by a head. He’s unlucky to be racing at the same time as Sir Cecil otherwise he would have been at a different level altogether. The main drawback for him in the Derby is the 2400 meters distance of the race. Excellent Art progeny are not know to be stayers and there hasn’t yet been a Derby winner for the Sire. Jockey Suraj Narredu has ridden him in all his major endeavours and rides him in the Derby over Mr Handsome which would have been a better choice for the champion jockey. The confidence of the jockey in this horse may be an indicator that the time for a turnaround of the fortunes of Star Superior is just round the corner and he can not be ignored in this race and we may have our first Excellent Art Indian Derby winner on Sunday.
Bushtops [Archipenko out of Etroubles(FR)] the second grey in the race comes from an impressive run last month over 2000m which he won with a comfortable margin of nearly 8 lengths and good timing. He is the “dark horse” in this race and could upset.
Tasawwur [Multidimensional(IRE) out of Transformation] is the other “dark horse” to watch for in this race and he may repeat the story of Rochester, the winner of last year’s Indian Derby. Rochester was a long shot winner beating three favourites Lady In Lace, Manifold and Prevalent Force in the 2018 edition. The biggest plus for him is his Sire being Multidimensional. He’s being ridden by A. Imran Khan who is known to put even non favoured horses on board if not win with them. The choice of rider will definitely do good for Tasawwur and he may even cause an upset in this race and create another story a la Slumdog Millionaire. You can surely expect to see him on board.
Pioneer [Phoenix Tower(USA) out of Riyasat] who is the Pune Derby winner comes back after an injury and is being ridden by P. Trevor who has recently won the Bangalore Derby with The Invader. Trevor will be looking for his first Indian Derby win and put all his skills to test in this race to get Pioneer to perform the way he did in Pune.
Eyes For You [Multidimensional(IRE) out of Margarita Rita(USA)], another Multidimensional in the race being ridden by Robbie Downey who has had a very impressive last run with her in the Indian Oaks 2 weeks ago running 1 1/4 lengths behind the winner Roberta at the finish. If the improving form of this filly continues as is, she may well be up there in the winners circle on Sunday.
Bluebell [Paco Boy out of Well Hidden(GB)] hasn’t been consistent with form in her recent runs, she definitely has the class in her and is being ridden by Irish jockey Leigh Roche who has had good success in his first season in India so far. In her last run in the Indian Oaks, Bluebell finished fourth behind Roberta, Eyes For You and Merlot.
Sacred Roman [Holy Roman Emperor out of Clicquot(USA)] being ridden by Y.S. Srinath will be looking to deliver on the expectations placed on him after he ran second in the Derby Prep race, The RR Ruia Gold Cup which Star Superior won by 1/2 a length. He’s a Multidimensional and the distance may be in his favour in this race. Srinath is looking for his Second Indian derby win after his 2014 win with Alaindair who incidentally is also a Multidimensional sired horse.
Mr Handsome [Tazahum(USA) out of Youre so Beautiful] is a difficult horse to control and makes up his own mind where he wants to run. Yash Narredu who rides his especially has had a difficult time with him. At the hand of Suraj Narredu, this horse is a transformed character and has performed impressively. Now back with Yash Narredu, we have to see how Mr Handsome behaves through the race. He can be up there if he runs as he has with Suraj Nerredu holding the reins.
The other runners in Augustus Caesar, Valegro, Vintage and Merlot have a very difficult task to achieve in this race and may well end up being the back markers towards the end.
All-in-all the 77th running of the Indian Derby is all set to be as exciting as ever and would bring utmost joy to all those present at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse to watch the champions of Indian Racing fight to the finish with one of them emerging this years winner and being written down with golden words in the history books. The day is going to get even more exciting to watch the past champions Desert God and Sergeant At Arms racing at the Premier Racecourse in the country.
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