In the short history of the Sprinters' Cup, five horses -- Klairon Gold, Oasis Star, Nefyn, Attila and Adam -- have won this prestigious race twice each. Klairon Gold started his double with a victory at Hyderabad in 1983; Oasis Star won her both races at Hyderabad while Nefyn completed his double in Hyderabad in 2014 with a thrilling last-gasp win. As the Invitation Carnival returns to Malakpet once again, the twinkle-toed filly Ruffina (Excellent Art - Miss Danehill) has an opportunity to add her name to the list of Famous Five. If she does, she will be 'doing a Nefyn' for that horse had bagged his double with wins at Calcutta and Hyderabad.  Only Klairon Gold of the five dual winners was a front runner and won both his races from the word 'Go'. Oasis Star raced prominently early on, made her move midway up the straight and had the race sewn up well before the winning post. The other three took their time to find their stride, settle and then come with a devastating stretch run to grab glory close home. Of their six combined wins, three were decided by a camera print while the winning margin was never more than a length in other three.

Ruffina (Excellent Art - Miss Danehill) is like the late finishing trio as far her manner of running is concerned. The dark bay filly, too, prefers to come from behind, usually wide of the field. A winner of 12 of her 14 starts, she has no peer at her pet distance on pure racing form. She was to have run in the Dr. S.C. Jain Sprinters' Championship, Gr.2 but was withdrawn on the morning of the race. She apparently suffered a shoeing injury and thus missed her prep-race. The nature of her injury is minor -- unlike Sir Cecil's tendon problem before the Indian Derby -- but the fact is that she missed her lead-up race and her preparation has followed an altered script. The timing of her final charge will have to be precise. She lost the Spartan Poker Indian 1000 Guineas, Gr.1 -- albeit over a distance which she had neither essayed before nor since -- by starting her run a wee bit too soon while in her Pune defeat she was alerted a tad too late. David Allan has won eight times on her and was on board in the Guineas so he knows the filly very well and can be expected to press the button at the right time – if of course he partners her which is still in doubt.   

Ruffina's younger full-brother, the course and distance winner Corfe Castle, is also in the field so we will be treated to a rare spectacle of two fully related siblings taking each other won in the same race. Corfe Castle, having won on debut at Hyderabad and then run second, came to Mumbai and emulated his sister by winning the Poonawalla Breeders' Multi-Million, Gr.1, coming from behind and did so in a faster time. He wasn't at his best during the summer and the monsoons but has won his last two starts -- Golconda 2000 Guineas, Gr.2 and Kakatiya Million, Gr.3 -- well. His overall record, though, pales before that of his sister and he will have the Maj. P.K. Mehra Memorial Super Mile, Gr.1 the next on his mind.

Apart from Corfe Castle, there are two older “Guineas" winners -- Mauritania (Excellent Art - Classic Sky) and Tutankhamun (Phoenix Tower - Dancerllon) -- also in the race. The Guineas wins were their only successful attempts at a mile and all their other wins have come over shorter distances.  Both look versatile up to a mile  and have engagements on the following day as well. Versatility has its own advantages but a race like this demands specialisation and so far neither has shown himself to be a specialist sprinter.

In the absence of Ruffina, the Dr. S.C.Jain Sprinters' Championship, Gr.2 -- a very significant and portentous race in the context of the Sprinters' Cup --  was won easily by Captain Courage (Admiralofthefleet - Celestrella). That was the gelding's first black-type win and it came after nearly two and a half years and a dozen starts without a bracket. In the last ten years, Mumbai-based horses have won the Sprinters' Cup nine times and Pesi Shroff has saddled five of them. On pedigree, Captain Courage is not bred to be a sprinter. He hails from the immediate family  -- Adler, Mystical, Ministerian and others -- that is essentially Classic rather than speedy. However, one has to accept a horse for what he is. Captain Courage's six wins are equally divided between the minimum distance and 1200 m. and only one of his 21 starts has been at a longer trip. Though he is now seven years old, that shouldn't matter because the eight year-old Nefyn had won this race previously.  The other Mumbai runners are Clymene (Western Aristocrat - Magdalena) and St. Andrews (Phoenix Tower - Machrihanish). The former is a scurry specialist whose five wins have all been at the minimum distance while the latter, a half-brother to dual  Sprinters' Cup winner Nefyn, last won a race at Pune in August 2017.

A nine year-old, though hasn't  won the Sprinters Cup yet. Smile Stone (Juniper - Alam Jahan) is now a nine year-old and this will be the fourth time that he will be competing in the Sprinters' Cup. His best effort so far was in placing a length second to Adam at Bangalore in 2017. In a long career of 73 starts, he has won 14 races including a dozen over 1200 m. His victories have come at either Bangalore and Mysore and his previous four visits to Hyderabad have brought no joy. He finished well behind Mauritania and Tutankhamun at Bangalore in the lead-up to this race and like those two has accepted for a race on Sunday.

One does not expect a Derby winner to win the Sprinters' Cup but Carnival (Mysore Derby) did so at Chennai in 1981. Maybe, that is inspiration for the Kingfisher Ultra Pune Derby, Gr.1 winner Accolade (Burden of Proof - Alnasreya) to dip his toes into the water. He was second to Corfe Castle in the Kakatiya Million, Gr.3 earlier this month but is without a win for a year-and-a-half. His trainer Pesi Shroff has an excellent record in  this race  and in the last three years has used the Kakatiya Million, Gr.3 as his preferred lead-up. The six year-old grey mare Rahuls Pet (Green Coast - Singing Speed) is a winner of eight races and has four course and distance wins to her credit. The last grey to win the Sprinters' Cup was the filly Calligraphy at Bangalore in 1982. 

The average field rating is 106.5 which is only slightly below the last ten years' average and there are only two  four year-olds in the field. The Classic crop is heavily outnumbered.

PAST THE POST

The shorter race has generally been featured earlier in the card on Saturday but there have been occasions when it has been the other way around. This a race where a healthy 40 % of the winners have been favourites and it has been shared equally between the older horses and the Classic crop. It is also a race which a 'got-abroad' is yet to win and there isn't one running this year.

The late Maj. P.K. Mehra was obsessed with speed. He once said that he wouldn't fret if his Usha Stud never bred a winner of Stayers' Cup but he would be mighty sad if that nursery was short on winners of the Sprinters' Cup or the Super Mile. The fact that Usha Stud tops the table of both the races today would have pleased him enormously.

In the last ten years, the leaders of the various categories of all four Gr.1s considered, are:-

Jockey          --   Y.S. Srinath and P. Trevor (4 wins each)

Trainer          --   Pesi Shroff (10 wins)

Owner           --   United Racing & Bloodstock Breeders Ltd. (6 wins)

Representative Centre --      Mumbai (26), Bangalore (10), Hyderabad (3) and Calcutta (1)

Stud Farm     --   Usha Stud (11 wins)

Stallion          --   Multidimensional (6 wins) 

Damsire         --   Razeen (12 wins)