Indian Turf Invitation Cup 2019 Pre Race Interviews

The Indian Turf Invitation Cup 2019 Pre Race Interviews by Commentator B Shiva Prasad

On 3 March 1963, Mount Everest, the Pride of Guindy, held the Calcutta pair of The Leprechaun and Time Machine to lift the inaugural Indian Turf Invitation Cup. The Mumbai-based quartet of horses finished off-the-board but Mahalakshmi was the venue and so each of the then three Turf Authorities played their part in the successful beginning. Since then, 55 more Invitation Cups have been contested. The first 50 of those were for four-year-olds only with the older horses being permitted to take part just recently. For the first five years, the older horses had to give 4 kgs. to the Classic generation. Last year, the penalty was reduced to 2 kgs. Still, all the 56 Invitation Cups run so far have been won by the Classic crop and we are still looking for an older horse to lift the trophy.

There are many reasons why the older horses have so far drawn a blank. A glaring one among those is that In The Spotlight and Desert God -- two high-calibre Invitation Cup winners, both trained by Padmanabhan -- who could have repeated their previous year's victory, were on their foreign jaunts and thus not on hand to defend their crowns. Tintinnabulation, Alaindair, Quasar and Temerity did turn up to take on the Classic crop and all four finished on the board but the victory eluded them.

Since the Classic crop has been so dominant, let us start with the four year-olds. That Sir Cecil and Star Superior were in a different league to their contemporaries was proved in the Indian Derby. Sir Cecil, plagued by a bad tendon, did not perform to his potential and Star Superior romped away to an easy victory. A comparison of the five winter Derby ratings shows the 2015 crop (Star Superior) to be inferior to 2016 crop (Kangra) by about 8 points. As the leader of his generation, Star Superior (Excellent Art - Ramjet) thus carries the flag and the hopes of his crop. Take away his his three defeats to Sir Cecil and he has done everything -- and more -- that could be expected of him. He now comes up against the older horses for the first time in his career and faces another acid test. Like Kangra last year, he has to contend with two previous winners of the race.

Adjudicate (Multidimensional - Alvarita) is a good, consistent filly but nowhere as good as her Calcutta form made her look. Adjuducate has moved to Bangalore where she is in the care of Padmanabhan under whom her current trainer J.E. McKeown learned the ropes of his trade and will be saddling her at Hyderabad. She and The Invader (Total Gallery - Dajolie) are the only ones to have won two consecutive Classics in the winter. The Invader has been impressive in both his wins and is an improving sort on an upward curve. He could well run a better race than expected. Other members of the 2015 crop will have a tough job finishing in the money.

The way a Classic generation falls away after the Invitation Cup in India is alarming. From the 2014 crop, Rochester is dead; fillies Manifold, Mahateji and Lady In Lace are at stud (Manifold's first foal by Speaking of Which is expected in March while Lady In Lace and Mahateji will be covered this year); Prevalent Force has returned to racing at a mile or thereabouts and Aggregated has not won for over a year; That leaves Kangra as the sole representative of her generation. Trainer Attaollahi's filly has won two of her eight starts since the last Invitation Cup, never run a really bad race nor a really eye-catching one. The high point of her career last year was a hat-trick of Classic wins over 2400 m. Surprisingly, she hasn't raced beyond 2000 m. since her Calcutta victory. She will be going over her favourite distance at Malakpet, a track on which she has won previously, is rated 6 points higher than Star Superior and is working well.

No one has a better measure of Star Superior than trainer Padmanabhan. He comes with half-brothers Desert God and Indian Pharaoh for the race though his one time trump card, Sir Cecil, is a notable absentee. That alone should convince the doubters -- they kept referring to his "rumoured" niggles after the Indian Derby -- that grey had problems more serious than 'niggles'. The update on Sir Cecil if far from official and ranges from "won't race for a long time" to "may never race again".

The hopes of the older brigade clearly lie with Desert God (Burden of Proof - Running Flame) and Smasher (Multidimensional - Exquisite). After winning the Gourmet Renaissance Indian St. Leger, Gr.1 at Pune towards the end of September 2016, Desert God spread his wings and went westwards. He raced nine times in 2017 -- twice in Dubai and seven times in England -- at distances from 2300 m. to 3200 m. but never finished in a paying place despite his rating dropping down 82. He returned to India in January 2018 after Temerity's Invitation Cup at Bangalore and with insufficient time to get ready for Kangra's at Calcutta.