The formal unvieling of the beautiful Kingfisher Bangalore Derby 2010 Trophy took place in the paddock during the local races last Sunday. Famous designer Manoviraj Khosla officially handed over this trophy on behalf of The UB Group to N Harindra Shetty, the Chairman and Senior Steward of the Bangalore Turf Club. There were many questions that arose in one's mind while watching this ceremony. Most prominent among those was about the identity of the person who would be proudly holding this trophy next Sunday.

Would Sun Kingdom be able to maintain his unbeaten status? Will Immense be able to reverse the verdict with Sun Kingdom? Could Moonlight Romance reproduce the sparkle that she had shown in March? Had Richard Hughes made the right choice by agreeing to ride the filly? Was the decision of spending close to a Million bucks enabling Immense to start in this race, a sound one? Were Foreign Exchange and The Leader good enough to match strides with the top three? Who was going to walk away with the winner's purse of Eighty Lakh Rupees in this richest ever Kingfisher Bangalore Derby? We must wait till the 11th of July, when it may take a little over two minutes to answer most of these questions.

The Classic Scene at Bangalore has been changing rapidly during the last few months. Highly regarded fillies like Awarding, Tsavorite, Sun Dancing and Sunset Boulevard started the Summer Season as the leading juveniles, but slowly and steadily dropped out of contention. The Wadhawan family was delighted with the progress made by Sun Kingdom. This horse tamed everything that tried to oppose him, and retired as a facile winner of The Colts Trial Stakes.

Mumbai-based Moonlight Romance was their hope amongst the fillies. Although she succumbed to Siachen's onslaught in the Fillies Trial Stakes, she wasn't disgraced. The fact that Siachen has been withdrawn, makes Moonlight Romance the best filly in The Derby. The aura around her brightens further when you hear that Richard Hughes is making a special trip to partner her on Sunday. With the best filly and the best horse in the Derby field belonging to them, it may not be out of place to say that the Wadhawans are already planning their victory celebrations.

The only horse that has a realistic chance of spoiling their party is Immense. Coming in as a final entry at an astronomical cost, Immense is a vastly improved runner. Arjun Mangalorkar must be praying for history to repeat itself. It was Aboline last year, who had lost the Colts Trial stakes due to unfavourable circumstances, but had gone on to win the Summer Derby. Aboline had begun coughing a few days prior to the Colts and the helpless trainer could not medicate him before an important Classic.

Similarly, the stable feels that Immense lost the Colts this year because of an inexperienced rider. The camp hopes that Immense will emulate Aboline on Sunday. The three frontline contenders are likely to corner a bulk of the betting. There is no doubt that Sun Kingdom will start as a strong favourite ahead of Moonlight Romance and Immense. Some stray support may flow in the direction of Foreign Exchange and The Leader.

The presence of so many well-performed horses will ensure that there is no on-money favourite in this race. The extra two furlongs of the Derby may lure bookmakers to take their chances. A brief synopsis about the past performances and the current form of these runners is given below.

Sun Kingdom (Royal Kingdom-Porsche Too): This beautiful looking horse is the only unbeaten runner in the Derby. He has won all three starts, and done it in style. In his very first outing, Sun Kingdom tackled the seven-furlong trip like a seasoned campaigner. He came from behind and stopped the clock in an unbelievable timing. It was almost identical to a Class I race that afternoon. Irfan nursed him to his peak this season.

His winning efforts in the Juvenile Million and The Colts Trial Stakes bear testimony to his immense capabilities. It is difficult to assess his limitations as he is yet to be beaten on a race track. Sun Kingdom possesses deep reserves of speed and stamina, and the way he accelerates in the straight is quite extraordinary. The connections have done well to retain the winning combination of horse and jockey.

Suraj has ridden a couple of "perfect" races on Sun Kingdom, and the horse has been enjoying this partnership. In my opinion, it will take a very good opponent to beat him on Sunday. Moonlight Romance (China Visit-Wandering Star): The Mumbai-based filly arrived in Bangalore with a lot of fanfare. She was touted as the winner of the Bangalore Summer Classics even before she was loaded by Cooji Katrak on to a float from the Mahalakshmi race course.

A winner in two of her three career starts at her home centre, Moonlight Romance had displayed her "staying" abilities. The manner in which she won The Juvenile Fillies Championship in late March was a revelation. She had handled the mile with a minimum of fuss. Her lengthening strides showed that she would be even better over longer trips. Moonlight Romance had got beaten by Siachen in The Fillies Trial Stakes. She was definitely hampered for room in that race, and was full of running on that day.

With Richard Hughes making the journey to guide her fortunes, Moonlight Romance is set to run a big race in The Kingfisher Bangalore Derby. Immense (Gaswar-Alto Miss): After a modest beginning in Winter, this nice looking chestnut colt struck good form and picked up a couple of races. The connections pitched him at the deep end by running him in The Colts Trial Stakes. His engaged jockey cried off at the last moment and created a big problem for the stable.

Left totally helpless, Arjun Mangalorkar had no option but to entrust this colt to apprentice Zervan. The boy did the best he could, but was not up to the mark. Immense did wonderfully well to drag his rider into second place. There is no doubt that with stronger assistance from the saddle, Immense would have finished much closer to Sun Kingdom.

His late acceleration on that day has prompted the owners to pay a hefty Rs 9.60 lakh as final entry fee to facilitate his participation in the day's feature. Immense has done a brilliant gallop on the training track, and his trainer feels that the colt is perfectly tuned to match strides with the best on Sunday. Incidentally, jockey Sampson has been booked to ride him in this race.

The Leader (China Visit-Lei): The Hyderabad challenger won two races at his home centre before proceeding to take part in The Poonawalla Multimillion at Mumbai. The Leader was unfortunate to have run into traffic problems in that race. Jockey Mclaughlin raced him in the rear and tried to make his final charge towards the inside rails. The large gap closed suddenly and The Leader was caught in a helpless situation.

By the time he was pulled out and given his head, the race was over. Trainer Shehzad Abbas was quick to realize that despite all these hindrances, The Leader had finished barely three lengths behind the winner. The trainer brought him to Bangalore and has given him a feel of the local track by running him in an ordinary race a few weeks ago.

He hopes that his horse will reproduce his Mumbai form to tackle the "Big Guns" in the Derby. It is learnt that jockey Daniel Grant has been engaged to perform his duties astride The Leader. Foreign Exchange (AlNasr Alwasheek-Risada): Prithviraj-trained Foreign Exchange created ripples at The BTC when he made his debut in Summer.

He was given light work prior to that race and it was felt that he would need that run. As a 30/1 outsider, Foreign Exchange had galloped away to an impressive victory. There were rumours that some "big" racing establishments had offered in excess of Rs 10 million to buy this horse and the owners had politely declined the offer. They did not want to part with their prized possession. His subsequent starts were quite disheartening, and it seemed as though he had lost his zest for racing.

The trainer was completely foxed by this behaviour. He took a decision to stop training him thereafter. Prithviraj was quick to bring him back to the routine that Foreign Exchange had been following at the beginning of the Summer Season. According to the trainer, a mere reproduction of his winning form should see Foreign Exchange finishing in close proximity of the winner on Sunday.