Bengaluru: The 44th edition of the Winter Derby — the BN Gudiyappa Bangalore Derby — wears an open look with S. Padmanabhan shifting his two wards Ice Glacier and Hall Of Famer to Mumbai with an eye on the Indian Derby.
The three final entries (Battalion, Captain Morgan and Proserpine paying 29 lakhs each) has boosted the prize money to a great extent. The winner will take home Rs 70.6 lakhs from the total take money of Rs 1.44 crore. The Suleiman S. Attaollahi-trained Captain Morgan is expected to run as favourite by virtue of having run a short head behind to the most consistent stable-mate Azzurro (who subsequently went down narrowly fighting to Colombiana at Kolkata on Monday) in the Chief Minister’s Cup over 2000 metres.
Based on that performance Captain Morgan is being rated 78, followed by the classic winners Proserpine at 76 and Battalion at 75. As the Captain is bred to stay he may not find it hard to exploit the extra 400 metres to his advantage to emerge victorious in the Derby. Though he was beaten by Battalion by two lengths in the 2000 Guineas, followed by Tororosso, Bold March and Sporting Pleasure not on board, he is all set to reverse that order.
Benefited by the experience of two classic victories, a Nilgiris Derby and 2000 Guineas, Battalion is expected to run true to his name and will not go down without a fight. The vastly improved Proserpine is expected run close while Bold March, who was a bit upset and throwing tantrums before the start in the 2000 Guineas, is the one who can upset the apple cart of the fancied runners if he settles well.
