The grand stand at the Madras Race Club is spruced in preparation for the Invitation Cup races to be held over the weekend. — E.K. Sanjay
Adam, Dancing Prances in test of speed at Chennai course The romance of racing might just be returning to the historic Guindy race course over the Invitation Cup weekend (March 5 and 6). To decide the fastest horse in the country as well as the doughtiest stayer of the year on the same day is a bit like running the 100 metres and the marathon in one day at the Olympics. What such programming does in racing, however, is to give game horses the chance of going for the double of the Sprinters Cup on Saturday and the Golden Mile on Sunday, which the legendary trainer Rashid Byramji did with Bergamo to start a trend.
Such a grand double is unlikely this weekend although at least two runners will run in both races. The Shroff-trained Myrtlewood is in the super mile race and appears a cinch while the Sprinters Cup has a number of fast horses who are finishers rather than frontrunners, which means a thrilling finish is in the offing. There is no Indiscretion in the field which can go from gate to post while showing her back all the way to all rivals. A versatile seven-furlonger is more likely to take such a Sprinters Cup where those kept off the early pace have the ability to finish faster than the frontrunners in the straight.
The leading contenders for this year’s top sprint prize seem to be Adam, Dancing Prances and Dancing Phoenix. An upset is never ruled out in this race in which a bolt from the blue has been known to strike on quite a few occasions. The leading trio, plus Brahmachari, placed in the Dr SC Jain Sprinters Championship, which can be considered a good index of the capability and speed of the contenders. Adam finished so strongly there in the Mumbai straight that he can be considered the favourite here to down Dancing Prances who just prevailed in that race.
The prize could well go to one of them on Saturday with Adam drawn better at gate 7 while Dancing Prances has to come out of gate 15 in a field of 18 runners. Dancing Phoenix, Satellite and Vijay Vidatha will all be in the fighting line for the '30 lakh prize. Pesi Shroff sounded confident about his sparingly raced Adam.
The Stayers Cup, wisely run in the later part of the evening, would still be a gruelling test in the prevailing conditions in early March. There are some stout stayers in the field of 11 of whom only one is a 4-year-old — King Charles. It would be interesting to see if the younger horse can upset the applecart of the seasoned campaigners like Agostini, who will probably start out as a 3 to 1 first favourite.
The winner of a Bangalore Derby in his time, the 6-y-0 Agostini won the Queen Elizabeth Cup (2800m) in his last start to stress his staying prowess. King Charles, who won the 2000 Guineas and the Derby at Malakpet will be hoping the pull in weights will tell in the long race. If in the mood, old classic winners like Tintinnabulation, Toro-loco and even Rodeo who won the only 3200m race still being run in the country (Suresh Mahindra Trophy) can brighten up the finish.
The kind of ante-post prices being put up for the weekend races points to the return of big time racing to Guindy. The odds are so generous in their spread across the fields in the 8-race Saturday card that the punters and the patrons alike can enjoy the prospect of highly competitive races in India’s oldest racecourse after 11 years.
