The first Indian Classic of year -- the Indian 1000 Guineas -- is usually run in mid-December. It was scheduled  a bit early this year. Twice, it has been run even earlier. First when My Smita won on December 8, 1963 and the previous year when Nanda Deep triumphed on December 9. It has been held thrice on December 10 -- Sparkling Water (1967), Golden Treasure (1989) and Guest Connections (2006). The significant common factor between all those five runnings was that the winner was not a favourite. In fact, the Indian 1000 Guineas is a race which has been the least favourite-friendly Indian Classic with only 26 fillies justifying the confidence reposed in them in the previous 75 renewals. Only two favourites -- Set Alight (2009) and Jacqueline (2010) -- have won in the last ten years and since Jacqueline, seven consecutive favourites have been beaten. The filly which heads the betting market on Saturday will be wearing an uneasy crown.

With three outstanding fillies in the fray, each of them a Gr.1 winner, who will start as the shortest priced one is hard to predict. So let's start with the one who is highest rated.  Ruffina (Excellent Art - Miss Danehill) is unbeaten in her five starts and trounced a Class I field over 1400 m. last time out in a sparkling fashion. Speaking off the memory, Her Majesty, Heliantha, Her Excellency, Set Alight and Alma Mater went unbeaten into in to this race and won comfortably despite being the favourites. On the other hand, Sweet Memories, Camineto and Smashing, all three unbeaten favourites, met their first defeat. What is in Ruffina's favour is that over the last ten years, the strike rate of highest rated runners is impressive. Four of the winning fillies were highest rated while two others were joint highest-rated.

Miss Danehill, the dam of Ruffina, won five races in Italy over sprints. Her first foal also won in Italy. She was then entered for the Goffs November 2007 sale but was withdrawn. Purchased privately, she came to India in 2008 in foal to Majestic Missile. She has three more foals prior to Ruffina.  The five foals of  Miss Danehill  -- Black Jack Road (abroad),  Lucky Pineapple, Polished Chrome,  Lady Danehill and Ruffina -- are all winners but, significantly, no foal of Miss Danehill has so far won beyond 1400 m. Ruffina will hence be stepping in to unknown territory on the week-end. What augers well for her is that she is vastly superior to her siblings and that abundance of class alone may help her to surmount any short-comings. Besides, she certainly wasn't stopping at the end of her last race over 1400 m. A further plus point is that she will be ridden by David Allan. Allan needs just one more Classic win to become the most successful foreign jockey in India as far as Classics are concerned. He is currently tied with Sandy Barclay, both having 22 Classic wins. No track work of Ruffina has been reported since 2 December.

Five days after Ruffina's last race, Manifold won the Maharaja Sir Pratapsingh Gaekwad Trophy over the same distance. Shroff's filly carried four kgs. more, ran with false rails up and clocked a slightly faster time. The penetrometer reading when Manifold won was 0.2 less.  At level weights, Manifold certainly comes out the better after all mathematical calculations are done. Unfortunately, races are not decided by mathematical calculations. If they were, all maths professors would have turned to racing !

After winning the Kingfisher Ultra Derby Bangalore, Gr.1, Manifold was beaten in the Deccan Fillies' Championship Stakes, Gr.3 by Lady In Lace. Manifold won in Bangalore by a sustained stretch run which ultimately got the better of Castlebridge who is now rated 94. That run suggests that she has plenty of stamina but not necessarily a turn of foot so essential over a mile. Her Hyderabad foray, in hindsight, was a misadventure. Perhaps, the opposition was under estimated and the filly was sent on an uncharacteristic start to finish attempt. She caved in to Lady In Lace who at that time was rated below her but has subsequently been in a tremendous upward surge. Though Manifold's immediate family may not be very eye-catching on paper, she traces to a very respected Classic tap-root in Tillywhim. She will need to be at her sharpest on Saturday as her two principal rivals appear better suited to a mile while the Oaks appears a more suitable trip for the daughter of Multidimensional. Manifold is the fifth Derby Bangalore winner to run in the Indian 1000 Guineas. All five of them are Usha Stud-breds. Snow Dew and Set Alight won over the mile at Mahalakshmi but Camineto and Moonlight Romance were beaten. A Multidimensional progeny has finished in the first three in every black-type race -- barring the Calcutta 2000 Guineas -- during the current year and Manifold should uphold that trend. After the training tracks were opened, Manifold has been worked, rather unsually, on three consecutive days.

Lady In Lace (Chinese Whisper - Sea Spray) has undoubtedly been the star revelation of the 2014 crop. Bred in Tohana, boasting a none too fashionable pedigree, based in Hyderabad and schooled by a trainer with just a solitary Classic winner previously, she has earned her plaudits by sheer hard work. She raced 13 times in her first year and won seven races which included the humbling on the Kingfisher Ultra Derby Bangalore, Gr.1 winner Manifold and disdainful thrashing of the best that Western India put up against her in the Kingfisher Ultra Pune Derby, Gr.1. She has since changed hands for reportedly a considerable sum of money and is now part-owned by the Mistrys of Manjri Stud. Her easy victory in the Golconda 1000 Guineas, Gr.2 shows that all is well with her.

Her sire is a son of the redoubtable stamina influence Montjeu who raced under the tutelage of Aidan O'Brien at  Ballydoyle. After winning his maiden on his second start, Chinese Whisper ran only in black-type races and his best effort was in placing a close third in the Gran Criterium, Gr.1 at San Siro. It has to be noted that O'Brien never raced him beyond extended 2000 m. and in fact switched him back to a mile after he was found wanting at longer distances. He belongs to a branch of the Mackwiller family developed by the Wertheimers that is quite speedy with the likes of Midget II, Mige, Ma Biche and Kistena who were Gr.1 winners at a mile or less. Sea Gazer, the grandam of Lady In Lace, won the South India 1000 Guineas, Gr.2 and The Lady is herself in-bred 3x3 to full-brothers Sadler's Wells and Fairy King.

What is  most endearing about The Lady is her style of running. She in content to switch off and be in the rear early on, makes ground effortlessly round the bend and produces a good -- if short -- burst of speed when asked. Like Manifold, she is a winner of a three year-old Derby over 2000 m. but appears better suited for a mile than the other filly. Her jockey will need to time her effort very precisely to maximize her chances. She is attempting to emulate Vijays Pride who won the Indian 1000 Guineas after winning the Golconda version five years back and is sure to have many friends.

Only two other fillies deserve a mention. One is Themis (Lord Shanakil - Soul Society), the only  'got-abroad' in the field. In the first 67 renewals of the race, only three 'got-abroads' won but there have been the same number in the last eight years. Mr. Vijay Shirke's filly is a course and distance winner having won the Forbes' Fillies Championship Stakes, Gr.3 back in March, beating Manifold by a short-neck. Since then, Manifold has finished ahead of Themis in three encounters. The last time the two fillies met last month, Manifold gave four kgs. and a two length beating to Themis. On that basis, it will be hard for M.K. Jadhav's ward to turn the tables.

Another Classic winning filly is the beautifully bred  Windsor Forest (Phoenix Tower - Shamsa), the winner of the Nilgiris 1000 Guineas, Gr.3. She has been behind Manifold twice in Bangalore while Lady In Lace beat her two lengths in Hyderabad. On the other hand, she beat Sana in the Calcutta Fillies' Trial Stakes on her last start. All the three wins of Windsor Forest have been over 1400 m. but things going her way, she is capable of getting a mile now that she a bit older. She seems to be afflicted with wanderlust for her eight starts so far have come at  five centres. She is owned by the Mistrys and trained by Pesi Shroff. The Mistrys have a bigger stake in Lady In Lace and Manifold will surely start at shorter odds than Windsor Forest. So is Windsor Forest the back-up if The Lady and Manifold are found wanting or will she be employed to set a blistering pace and thus test Ruffina's suspect stamina ? On the answer to that question, probably, revolves the way the race is run and won on Saturday.

Five fillies have dropped out at the Acceptance stage leaving just nine runners, the smallest field since Set Alight won in 2009. Despite three high class fillies contesting, the average field rating is only 65.4. That is below the average field rating of 68.8 of the recent years. Pesi Shroff has sent out the winner of this race in the last two years and his overall tally of six equals that of Uttam Singh. Pesi Shroff's first ever winner as a jockey -- My Squaw -- was trained by Uttam Singh.                                        

PAST THE POST

It rarely rains during the winter season at Mahalakshmi. But rarely is not never and there have been instances in the past of rain affecting the running of the Indian 1000 Guineas. The first was in 1965 when Rashid Byramji won his first Classic with Radhapyari. It rained for a while on the morning of the race and going was very soft. Radhapyari's winning time was the slowest ever for the race. Radhapyari hated rain and the trainer was glad that she took it in her stride. The overnight rain in 1976 was sufficiently heavy for the racing on 12 December -- Indian 1000 Guineas day -- to be cancelled. Mr. & Mrs. N.E.D. Pandole's filly Reprint won the race which was postponed to 15 December. Reprint was trained by none other than Rashid Byramji.

Effects of Cyclone Ockhi have been felt on the West coast, too. Mumbai had a soggy start to the week and enough water was deposited on India's commercial capital for the mid-week and Sunday's racing to be cancelled and the training tracks to be closed. The year's first Indian Classic will now be run on 16 December, six days later than scheduled. A Thoroughbred is primed to run a Classic and any postponement can have an adverse effect. At the same time, it also gives a bit of additional time to someone who was a wee bit backward to catch up. No two horses are alike and the postponement affects each of the runners differently.

Including Reprint's race mentioned above, two other renewals of the Indian 1000 Guineas have been postponed. In 1987, the race was postponed from the scheduled Sunday by five days and run on a Friday. The race was won by Au Panache. Then, in 1992, riots forced the Authorities to cancel racing,  the Indian 1000 Guineas was postponed by two weeks and run after the Indian 2000 Guineas. Reprint, Au Panache and Thumbelina are the winners of the three postponed Indian 1000 Guineas. None of them started as the favourite.