There was a time when the Derby was traditionally run on the Epsom Downs on the first Wednesday in June. The Oaks was then run after the Derby. In recent years, tradition was sacrificed on the altar of commercial considerations and Derby shifted to the first Saturday in June which meant that Oaks is now run before the Derby. 

When Desiree won the very first Calcutta Oaks in 1967-68, it was run before the Calcutta Derby; as it was the following year when Fair Haven won both the races. Then, for thirteen years, Calcutta went the Epsom way, scheduling its Oaks after the Derby. It was back to Oaks followed by Derby from the 1983-84 season and has continued that way except for two years (when Arabian Rose and Sabre Dance, two fillies carrying the Mallya colours, won) when the Oaks was run after the Derby.  

Whatever the order, it is one Classic which has never quite caught the attention. The Calcutta Oaks has been run 44 times (it was not held in 1971-72), the average field for the race is just five runners and you would never have needed all the fingers of your two hands to count the runners. In the last ten years, nine favourites have won, two of them by a distance. 

This year, three final entries of outstation horses has salvaged the race and added Rs. 13,50,000 to the total stakes. The economics of final entries is that if you place third, you recover the final entry fee. Angel Child, Catch The Sun and Koh Samui will have that as the minimum target and as only Silverina from the home team runs at least two of them should be able to meet it. 

Chase The Sun (Burden of Proof - Catch Fire), winner of the Calcutta 1000 Guineas, Gr.3 and a close second to Malpensa in the Calcutta 2000 Guineas, Gr.2 has established her standing as an accomplished miler. She was a supplementary entry for both those races.  She is yet to race beyond a mile and neither did her dam. Catch Fire's two other foals to race are full siblings to Chase The Sun; Cavalry Charge has won over 2000 m. while the longest winning distance of Catchphrase is a mile. Catch Fire's siblings did not win beyond 1400 m. While that might suggest stamina limitations, it may not necessarily be so. She has a low DI and her successive maternal grandsires are Tejano, Irish River, Czaravich and Prince John. The shortest running of them was the brilliant and high class miler Irish River. She is superior to Angel Child and Silverina in the rating scale and if the race is run in at a muddling pace, she can cause a surprise. After all, Burden of Proof already has a Calcutta Oaks winner (Sans Pareil) and a Calcutta Derby winner (Abs Fabs) against his name; though, it has to be said that those two Classic winners had stouter dam lines. 

Chase The Sun and Angel Child (Razeen - Veena's Pet) are both owned by Dr. Mallya with the former being trained by Padmanabhan and the Razeen filly entrusted to Pesi Shroff. Angel Child came out of the maiden ranks on her second start which was over a mile at Mahalakshmi. She next ran in the Forbes Breeders' Juvenile Fillies' Championship, Gr.3 where her stable-mate Portia and bracket-mate Samantha were better backed indicating that she was just out for the experience. Beaten a short-head on her re-appearance in Pune, she then went to Malakpet and ran second to Vijays Pride in the D.B.A. Hyderabad Fillies' Trial Stakes, Gr.3. On to Calcutta where she was again second, this time to Silverina in the Calcutta Monsoon Derby,Gr.3 though just a length behind. Wisely, she side-stepped the 1000 and ran in the Black Buck Handicap over 2000 m. which she won easily beating Razmaden. Razmaden has subsequnetly come out and won a race with the top-weight and is rated 90.  

Angel Child is fresh and on her pedigree there are no doubts about her excelling over 2400 m. She is a full-sister to Romantic Liaison who won the Dheeraj Arma Indian Oaks, Gr.1, a three-parts sister to the Indian Triple Crown winner Indictment and a half-sister to Cordon Rouge who won the South India Oaks, Gr.2. That's more than enough commendation for class and stamina. 

Silverina (China Visit - Silver Print), however, has a victory over Angel Child to her credit in their only meeting so far. The inter-se relationships are more important than ratings and Silverina has done little wrong. Admittedly, she was only third behind Chase the Sun in the Calcutta 1000 Guineas, Gr.3 but that was over a mile. The longer trip suits her better. Her dam (by Steinbeck out of a Razeen mare), second in the Calcutta Oaks,Gr.3 to Amorina six years ago, has more speed further back and the family is not stout as that of Angel Child. She settles well, comes from off the pace and runs with a realistic chance.  

The final entry of Chase The Sun must have caused some anxiety to Angel Child's trainer Pesi Shroff. He wouldn't be far from wrong in assuming that the daughter of Burden of Proof would run her race to her own convenience rather than make a pace to Angel Child's liking. He has countered that with a final entry of his own. Koh Samui, a Senure half-sister to Maddox, will probably blaze to the front. 

It is going to be tactical race (which gives advantage to Padmanabhan and his jockey David Allan) and the pace will decide the outcome. In a solidly run contest, Angel Child has the edge; Silverina and Chase The Sun will be happier with a steady pace.  

PAST THE POST 

The 1973-74 Calcutta Oaks, run after the Calcutta Derby, was won by a filly called Goldfinder. That chestnut filly was owned by M/s. H.P. Au, B.N. Shaw & Sivaji Biswas and trained by Mac Galstaun. There were seven runners in the race and after Fujiama had led till well into the straight Goldfinder, who had waited behind her, was sent on by George Duffield and she came home to win comfortably by a length and quarter. The on-money favourite Rose Blossom progressed steadily through the race and finished second without causing any anxiety to the winner. That was Galstaun's third Oaks win five years and though Goldfinder was no patch on his two earlier (Fair Haven and Royal Challenge), she has a place of her own on account of her sire. 

Goldfinder, like Fujiama, was a daughter of the Japanese stallion Hakuchikara (ch 1953 Tobisakura - Noborishiro). Hakuchikara is an honoured name in Japan because in 1959 he became the first Japanese horse to win a stakes race in U.S.A. At Santa Anita Park, he annexed the Washington Birthday Handicap beating the great Round Table. It was 46 long years before the next horse born in Japan won a stakes race in U.S.A. Hakuchikara, who won 20 races from 32 starts was some horse having won the Tokyo Yushun (Japan Derby), Tenno-Sho (Emperor's Cup), Arima-Kinnen, Meguro-Kinen, Tokyo Hai, Mainichi-Okan and many others of importance in Japan.  

When the Asian racing Conference was held for the first time in India in 1966, the Japanese authorities presented Hakuchikara to the Turf Authorities of India as a gesture of goodwill. Hakuchikara, who had been standing as a stallion for some years in Japan without much success, came to India in 1968 and took up residence at the Kunigal Stud. Never supported with adequate patronage, Hakuchikara covered about 100 mares in his 12 years at stud in India from which he produced about 40 foals. He was put down at the age of 26 in August 1979. While his virility remained good till the end (he covered even in his last season), the fertility deteriorated with passing of years. Apart from Goldfinder, he sired two Classic winners in Topspin (Calcutta Derby) and Tokaido Express (Calcutta St. Leger). 

The surprising part of the Hakuchikara story is that no photograph of him was in existence in Japan towards the end of the last millennium. India was able to reciprocate, in a small way, Japan’s earlier gesture by presenting a photograph taken at the Kunigal Stud to the Japanese authorities at the Asian Racing Conference in Macau.