Arjun Mangalorkar trained Mirra produced a vintage performance in the hands of jockey Antony and collected a king ransom en route to a splendid win in the Gr 1 Indian Derby, the biggest race of Indian Racing Calendar at the Mahalakshmi on Sunday in front of a massive gathering. The Usha Stud Farm which is celebrating the 50 years of its existence could not have asked for a better result as the stud farm got the unique distinction of having the first four winners bred at the premier stud farm. For the record, the success of Mirra gave Usha Stud Farm its 15th Indian Derby success which is also a record tally.

This year has seen the total domination of Usha Stud Farm bred horses in almost all the classics in the country. More importantly for the stud farm, its new stallion Speaking of Which is proving to be a perfect replacement for Multidimensional who himself has been instrumental in getting the classic tally of Usha Stud Farm reach staggering numbers. The first two favourites for the race were the progeny of Multidimensional with Mirra, the Bangalore Oaks winner, being from Speaking of Which.

The success of Mirra once again highlighted the fact that the Bangalore Classic results have a bearing on all India classics. For trainer Arjun Mangalorkar who is enjoying the best season ever having already accounted for four classics at Hyderabad, the success in the Indian Derby is the most coveted one. Pesi Shroff the invincible has often found much to his frustration, the challengers from Bangalore spoiling his happiness more often than not especially in the Indian Derby.

Pesi Shroff trained King’s Ransom had done everything right and expectedly went to the post as a strong favourite ahead of stablemate Supernatural. There was belief that Supernatural would be seen in different light in the Derby because the extended trip would suit him more than the rest. Apart from these two horses, Mirra and Once You Go Black were the horses in some betting albeit at higher odds. The18 horse field was bound to have a bearing on the result considering the fact that the first two favourites had the worst draw which put their jockeys in a dilemma about the strategy to adopt and how to react at the start, whether to go some distance with the flow and then ease back. King’s Ransom, after some hesitancy, was pulled back to rear group while Trevor Patel on Supernatural went with the pace for some distance before dropping back to grace the tail end. The only person who had perhaps decided about his strategy was jockey Y S Srinath on Imperial Power. From the wide outside draw, he straightaway dropped the horse back to the last position. Srinath did the best under the circumstances and Imperial Power who had his energy conserved, made a late rally to be an eye-catching fourth which must be considered the best he could have achieved.

When the 18 starters were flagged off, it was Ashwa Magadheera who led briefly before Fortunate Son was whipped to pick up speed to act as the pace maker. The other horse, also belonging the connections of the first two favourites, Place Vendome was also aggressively ridden to lead but both these horses, being of inferior merit, could not go at a fast clip for long. Suraj Narredu who had Shamrock placed handily in about the third position. Antony Raj eased Mirra in about the seventh position from a favourable draw and he escaped the frantic effort that the others had to make to take a vantage position.

Shamrock headed the field into the straight with Mirra cruising up and almost accorded the privilege of getting zero traffic privilege. Antony Raj who has shown lot of maturity as a rider in the last one year waited with Mirra before setting alight the filly inside the final 300 metres. Mirra accelerated tremendously and went storming clear and quickly established what turned out to be a winning lead.

Pradeep Chouhan on King’s Ransom perhaps did not want to run into turbulence by working his way through the crowded field. He chose to move away and elected to come the widest of the lot. The daughter of Multidimensional covered ground with menacing strides and came within reach of Mirra but the effort tired her out as she could not find an extra gear despite digging deep into her reserves. Mirra comfortably held off the challenge of King’s Ransom to win the race by a length. The surprise of the race was the inexperienced Wall Street with no solid racing credentials coming up with a big effort to be an impressive third in the hands of jockey Akshay Kumar. Imperial Power ran on late to edge out Dyf to fill up the frame.

Ameeta Mehra, the Managing Director of Usha Stud Farm, also fully owned Mirra. ''Usha Stud Farm was founded in the year 1973 by my late father Maj P K Mehra. It is remarkable that in the 50th year we should be extending our record tally of Indian Derby wins to 15. The additional delight was the 1-2-3-4 that our stud farm horses achieved which is a feat that doesn’t happen often. ‘’ To put things in perspective, the dominance of Usha Stud Farm horses has been phenomenal this year and as many as 11 of 18 runners that took part in the race were all bred at the leading nursery of India.

The Derby had all the elements of an action packed thriller, with the script of the race evolving as the action unfolded. The result once again proved the adage that there is nothing called a certainty in racing. The Derby may not always go the way of the best horse in the fray. The power of uncertainty is what makes the Derby more exciting than any race as it also coveted the most.

The RWITC administrators did a wonderful job of promoting the event despite the sponsors pulling out in the last minute. The extensive social media promotion and the tremendous enthusiasm displayed by the powers that be all contributed to make for an exciting week of racing action. RWITC can pat itself on the back for putting up such a good show.