Southern Empire (B.Prakash up) 
winner of the 
Kingfisher Derby Bangalore (Gr.1)

Southern Empire ruthless
By Sharan Kumar

Bangalore
July 09, 2006

Southern Empire had all along being ruling with an iron hand and he showed no mercy on Sunday when with a ruthless display, he destroyed the opposition in the Gr.1 Kingfisher Derby, Bangalore. His victory in the blue riband of the Bangalore summer season came as per script though the destruction that Southern Empire wreaked on a hapless opposition was truly mind-boggling.

Indian breeding has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years and the high quality of bloodstock being produced did not allow for one horse to be far superior to his contemporaries. Notwithstanding the best argued theories of breeding,the charm of the sport has always been the emergence of super stars at least once in a decade. In the last decade and a half, one had seen the phenomenon of Elusive Pimpernel, Continual and Saddle Up and now we have a super specimen in Southern Empire who is simply spectacular. He carries an air about him which is hard to describe but once he gets into the act, the speed, the acceleration and disdain with which he treats the opposition has to be seen to be believed. The victory of Southern Empire should bring great cheer to turf baron Dr. M A M Ramaswamy who owns the wonder horse with breeder Zavaray S Poonawalla. Southern Empire has all the makings of being a truly international hose and Zavaray Poonawalla said that Dr Ramaswamy had graciously agreed to forego even the Indian Derby to allow the breeder to race it suitably abroad to bring glory to India. But then that is something that may or may not happen but what will surely happen is the extension of the 'Southern Empire' to all India if it has not already taken place!

Trainer Ganapathy had everything going for him in the Derby as he had the two highest rated horses in the fray namely Southern Empire and Haunting Memories. The first named had remained unbeaten in his six starts and the latter too with the same record albeit starting her career with a defeat. There were some expectation of Running Bull, Lombardia and Red Eagle throwing some challenge but they were dismissed with contempt and ended up being part of the gold and brown procession headed by Southern Empire and Haunting Memories

Running Bull did the job of pace-making as the assigned pace-maker National Trust played truant. Only after the field had traversed some distance, did National Trust and Fabulous Emperor move up to race along with Running Bull at the head of the group before fading out at the final turn. Southern Empire raced a handy fourth along with Haunting Memories with Red Eagle, Lahinch and Lombardia who graced the rear.

Running Bull brought the filed into view with Southern Empire waiting to pounce on him and the moment jockey Prakash asked the champion to quicken, the favourite rocketed away from the field and won by a widening margin of over nine lengths in a record timing of 2 minutes 04.3 seconds. Haunting Memories was second ahead of Lombardia while Super Speed necked out Red Eagle for the fourth spot. Running Bull ran disappointingly.

Another Ganapathy trained runner, Diabolical trounced the opposition in the 1400 metres Mumbai Cup. The son of Major Impact, who had showed out in two mock races, surged ahead at the final turn and there was no stopping him. Diabolical checked in an excellent timing of 1 minute 25.91 seconds followed by Balthazar who was a promising second. Two of the runners who had failed to display their true colours in their previous outings, namely Storm Regent and Royal Falcon made amends winning their respective assignments. Storm Regent proved too good for his rivals while Royal Falcon survived by the skin of his teeth from Silver Tern.

Faraz Arshad trained Refreshing was backed spiritedly in the 2000 metres Kolkata Cup (Div I) and the daughter of Be Fresh who had picked up two classics last winter, easily had the measure of front-running Flareon who appears to be hopelessly one-paced. The lower division of the race was claimed as already mentioned by Royal Falcon who had to fight a hard
battle in the final furlong, to justify the favoritism.

The Derby day brought in record attendance and with it, the totalizator pools too touched a new high, with the net collection being a whopping Rs. 6 crores. The previous day, the pools had grossed over Rs 5 crores. The Derby races too ran kindly, with favourites winning in eight of nine races held on the day.