Joydeep Datta Gupta speaks his mind, no holds barred.

With Sana winning the Calcutta Monsoon Derby, I can't but help remember Silverina. She was our first horse and will forever remain very special to our family. Silverina carried herself with class, dignity, elegance and confidence. She took herself very seriously and committed to run her heart out on every occasion. She won the Calcutta Monsoon Derby in 2012, in an exhilarating race with a nail biting finish. There were several accomplished horses in contention that year. Snowscape (who had till then won the Calcutta Champagne Stakes and the Calcutta Million and who went on to win the Calcutta Winter Derby), Malpensa (who went on to win the Calcutta 2000 Guineas), Slade Valley ( who had notched up a commanding victory in runaway style in the Calcutta Colts Trial Stakes) and Angel Child (trained by Pesi Shroff, who had run second in the Deccan Fillies Championship). In this field, Silverina was not considered a possible winner by anyone except Epsom Ace, who tipped her to win at 10 to 1. Of course our family and friends knew she would win because she simply exuded confidence. PS Chouhan rode a brilliant race on her. He did of course cause us to bite off all our nails at the bend where she was fifth with absolutely no passage available to navigate through. Given the short Calcutta straight, it looked impossible. But the brilliance of the filly and the brilliance of PS saw her come through and win convincingly. This was a moment of high emotion for our family and friends and we had a grand celebration that night. Several of our friends who joined the celebration, then got interested in racing and joined us in owning horses. Silverina was bred at Usha Stud Farm (China Visit ex Silver Print) and was trained brilliantly by Bharath Singh.

Our group of owners grew in numbers from there on and we have six co-owners in Sana. Sana is an extremely talented filly and exudes positivity. She carries herself without any arrogance and is always game. She is simply brilliant and will win many admirers as she progresses with her career. The stands were full with the families and friends of our co-owners when Sana went out to run the Calcutta Monsoon Derby 2017. The pundits said that as Pesi Shroff has assessed Sana during the Fillies Trial Stakes and then sent Daffodil, surely Daffodil will win. Many wondered whether Sana will stay the trip as she had only won over 7 furlongs. Dashrath rode a flawless race on the filly and she cruised to a win that looked effortless. Such is the talent of this young lady. Kudos to Bharath Singh for preparing the filly to perfection. Sana was bred at Usha Stud Farm and is by Multidimensional ex Yana.

It is such a pleasure for my wife and me to be able to share the emotion of the moment and the passion with our co-owners and their families and friends. We look forward to sharing many more such moments of joy that Sana will certainly bring to us. We also look forward to many more sporting owners being attracted to the passion of this great sport.