Come Saturday and an amazing line-up of thoroughbreds will face the starter for Calcutta’s richest Derby Stakes ever. The winner’s purse for the Eveready Calcutta Derby Stakes is a mammoth Rs 68 lakh. The runner-up takes home an useful Rs 26 lakh while the third placed horse will be richer by Rs 13 lakh-plus. The total stake money is well over a crore. This centre has never before witnessed a race as rich as this one.

Five fillies, four colts and a couple of rigs complete the line-up of 11 runners for this piece de resistance. The impressive names among the trainers are sure to make punters sit up and take notice. Darius Byramji, Daniel David, Vijay Singh, Bharath Singh, Imtiaz Sait and last but not the least — Arti Doctor, are the schoolers in the fray. Barring apprentice Amandeep Singh astride Bountiful Talent, the rest of the men donning silks are talents more often seen in the south and west of the country. Three of the thoroughbreds participating in this mile-and-half classic are late entries for which their connections have had to fork out a total sum of Rs 27 lakh (Rs 9lakh per horse). One of these runners,

Romantic Tactics, may be considered to be the leading local challenger. This prize property of the Samurai Racing Syndicate has thrown down the gauntlet to the string of outstation challengers at the insistence of the centre’s champion jockey Christopher Alford. There is so much at stake for this blue riband of the season, that even the guardians took a compassionate stance and kept on hold Christopher’s suspension till after the Derby. Thus, the stage is well and truly set for this centre’s richest race of all time.

It’s time to take a peek at the profiles of some of the participants. The Byramjis (Darius and father Rashid) have the chestnut rig Able Associate and the filly Inspiring Trust. The latter was unimpressive in the Calcutta Oaks a fortnight back while the former finished a creditable fifth in the Bangalore Derby. Sired by Mr Mellon out of Associate, this mount of Suraj Narredu is undoubtedly the dark horse in the pack. He has worked well since coming to Calcutta and may spring a surprise.

Daniel David has a powerful contingent led by the 2000 Guineas winner Noble View (Razeen-Anagram). His second line of attack is the Oaks winner Grand Madame while Bountiful Talent is likely to act as a pacemaker.

Arti Doctor’s Raghuvansh comes strongly into reckoning in view of his brilliant second in the 2000 Guineas. This full brother (Royal Kingdom-Sarmatara) to Gruezi should get the trip quite easily. The handsome grey may go one better in the ‘big race’. He will be piloted by the flamboyant and reliable Frenchman Samuel Fargeat.

Vijay Singh is the centre’s most popular schooler. He won the Derby last year with Regal Connection, who is running on Saturday in the opening event. This year, Vijay’s primary candidate, Romantic Tactics, will not be sporting the famous red-and-gold Khaitan silks but rather, the peacock blue of the Samurai Syndicate. He is a facile winner of three races but has beaten nothing of note.

His other runner, Absolutely Royal, placed in the Oaks and should run well here. That leaves the pair of fillies , Colourful Lady and Abs Fabs. Chris Hayes has repeated his mount atop the former while the Arjun.

Mangalorkar-schooled Abs Fabs has an extremely impressive cv to her name. She won the Mysore Derby and placed second in the Bangalore Derby. She is the ante-post favourite for the big event and the one they all have to beat. The sole factor that detracts from her overbearing superiority is that she didn’t have must of a rest after the Bangalore Derby and comes into this mile-and-half classic without a race run at this centre.