Trainer Ganapathy, who
has maintained a stranglehold on the championship stakes, holds all the
aces, with the country’s highest rated three-year old colt and filly
namely Southern Empire and Haunting Memories under his charge. His
firepower has doubled as the horses which otherwise would have stayed
back at Pune under Dallas Todywalla have also migrated to Bangalore and
are under the care of Ganapathy. It would pay to follow the fortunes of
the gold and brown brigade of Dr.M.A.M.Ramaswamy who has virtually
bought the best produce of almost all the stud farms in the country.
Given the bench strength that Ganapathy has at his command, the other
professionals can only hope for immense luck to snatch the plum events
from his grasp.
Southern Empire who is a full brother to the Indian Triple Crown winner
Smart Chieftain has proved to be an exceptional horse, having already
won four races. Southern Empire is more strongly built that his
predecessors and has greater range and depth. He is blessed with a
tremendous turn of foot and he fulfills all the attributes of a great
horse as he has speed and more speed. Bred to stay, Southern Empire has
everything at his mercy barring any hiccup.
The Gr 1 Kingfisher Derby will have added money of Rs 50 lakh. The
Bangalore Turf Club is planning to guarantee Rs 1 crore as stake money
next year which would make the event as the richest race in the country.
Ganapathy’s prominent horses during the season would be Haunting
Memories who made the opposition legless in the Gr 1 Poonawalla
Breeders’ Multi-Million, Flaming Glory, Diabolical et al. The list
really is endless.
Among the others, Padmanabhan has a few horses which merit attention.
Topping the list would be Rain Splasher. The daughter of Placerville
served notice of her classic potential when she made a smashing winning
debut during the fag end of the winter season. Rain Splasher is the one
who can stretch Haunting Memories in the Fillies Trial Stakes where the
mile long trip could possibly blunt the brilliance of the Poonawalla
Million winner Haunting Memories. But there is no denying the fact that
Haunting Memories is at the moment is head and shoulders above the rest
of her sex.
This year, quite a few Mumbai based trainers have arrived for the
season. Apart from Imtiaz Sait who is a regular, the others who have
come with reasonably good horses are Bezan Chenoy and Pesi Shroff.
Kolkatta’s Vijay Singh has an exciting prospect in Ardelis who is
regarded highly.
Apart from the big guns, it also pays to follow trainers who did not
fire to expectations during the winter season.
