On 3 March 1963, Mount Everest, the Pride of Guindy, held the Calcutta pair of The Leprechaun and Time Machine to lift the inaugural Indian Turf Invitation Cup. The Mumbai-based quartet of horses finished off-the-board but Mahalakshmi was the venue and so each of the then three Turf Authorities played their part in the successful beginning. Since then, 55 more Invitation Cups have been contested. The first 50 of those were for four-year-olds  only with the older horses being permitted to take part just recently. For the first  five years, the older horses had to give 4 kgs. to the Classic generation. Last year, the penalty was reduced to 2 kgs. Still, all the 56 Invitation Cups run so far have been won by the Classic crop and we are still looking for an older horse to lift the trophy.

There are many reasons why the older horses have so far drawn a blank. A glaring one among those is that In The Spotlight and Desert God -- two high-calibre Invitation Cup winners, both trained by Padmanabhan --  who could have repeated their previous year's victory, were on their foreign jaunts and thus not on hand to defend their crowns. Tintinnabulation, Alaindair, Quasar and Temerity did turn up to take on the Classic crop and all four finished on the board but the victory eluded them.

Since the Classic crop has been so dominant, let us start with the four year-olds. That Sir Cecil and Star Superior were in a different league to their contemporaries was proved in the Indian Derby. Sir Cecil, plagued by a bad tendon, did not perform to his potential and Star Superior romped away to an easy victory. A comparison of the five winter Derby ratings shows the 2015 crop (Star Superior) to be inferior to 2016 crop (Kangra) by about 8 points. As the leader of his generation, Star Superior (Excellent Art - Ramjet) thus carries the flag and the hopes of his crop. Take away his his three defeats to Sir Cecil and he has done everything -- and more -- that could be expected of him. He now comes up against the older horses for the first time in his career and faces another acid test. Like Kangra last year, he has to contend with two previous winners of the race.

Adjudicate (Multidimensional - Alvarita) is a good, consistent filly but nowhere as good as her Calcutta form made her look. Adjuducate has moved to Bangalore where she is in the care of Padmanabhan under whom her current trainer J.E. McKeown learned the ropes of his trade and will be saddling her at Hyderabad. She and The Invader (Total Gallery - Dajolie) are the only ones to have won two consecutive Classics in the winter. The Invader has been impressive in both his wins and is an improving sort on an upward curve. He could well run a better race than expected. Other members of the 2015 crop will have a tough job finishing in the money.

The way a Classic generation falls away after the Invitation Cup in India is alarming. From the 2014 crop, Rochester is dead; fillies Manifold, Mahateji and Lady In Lace are at stud (Manifold's first foal by Speaking of Which is expected in March while Lady In Lace and Mahateji will be covered this year); Prevalent Force has returned to racing at a mile or thereabouts and Aggregated has not won for over a year; That leaves Kangra as the sole representative of her generation. Trainer Attaollahi's filly has won two of her eight starts since the last Invitation Cup, never run a really bad race nor a really eye-catching one. The high point of her career last year was a hat-trick of Classic wins over 2400 m. Surprisingly, she hasn't raced beyond 2000 m. since her Calcutta victory. She will be going over her favourite distance at Malakpet, a track on which she has won previously, is rated 6 points higher than Star Superior and is working well.

No one has a better measure of  Star Superior than trainer Padmanabhan. He comes with half-brothers Desert God and Indian Pharaoh  for the race though his one time trump card, Sir Cecil,  is a notable absentee. That alone should convince the doubters -- they kept referring to his "rumoured" niggles after the Indian Derby -- that grey had problems more serious than 'niggles'. The update on Sir Cecil if far from official and ranges from "won't race for a long time" to "may never race again".

The hopes of the older brigade clearly lie with Desert God (Burden of Proof - Running Flame) and Smasher (Multidimensional - Exquisite). After winning the Gourmet Renaissance Indian St. Leger, Gr.1 at Pune towards the end of September 2016, Desert God spread his wings and went westwards. He raced nine times in 2017 -- twice in Dubai and seven times in England -- at distances from 2300 m. to 3200 m. but never finished in a paying place despite his rating dropping down 82. He returned to India in January 2018 after Temerity's Invitation Cup at Bangalore and with insufficient time to get ready for Kangra's at Calcutta. Then, after an easy first outing during the Bangalore Summer season, he reeled off a hat-trick of wins in the Tetrasoft Inc. Bangalore St. Leger, Gr.2, President of India Gold Cup, Gr.1 and Golconda St. Leger, Gr.2, beating several younger Classic winners and exposing the enormous gulf between racing in India and abroad.

On his last start, he was well beaten by Smasher in S.M. Shah Eclipse Stakes of India, Gr.2. Too much should not be read into that defeat, firstly because Smasher was getting 10 kgs. and more importantly that 2000 m. is too short a distance for Desert God now. He turned seven in January, has lost some of his old speed but remains a worthy foe over longer distances where he can make the running. He does have a slightly unusual tail carriage and sometimes cocks his head to the left; the will to win, though, is very much in tact.

Smasher made his debut two months after his crop had finished running the Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby, Gr.1 won by Hall of Famer. He won his first race on his fifth start a day before he turned five. His trainer Pesi Shroff has brought him along nicely since then and he has added four more wins to his tally culminating in the S.M. Shah Eclipse Stakes of India, Gr.2. His wins have been at 2000 m. and 2400 m. Whatever may be the circumstances, he can truthfully claim to have beaten a future Indian Oaks winner in Roberta and a former Indian Derby winner in Desert God. Against that is his comprehensive and embarrassing loss to bracket-mate Bushtops when he was ridden in check. He is happy to make his own pace and it is possible that we are yet to see the best of him.  His three-parts sister, the Zoom Indian Oaks, Gr.1 winner Smashing, was second in this race to In The Spotlight in 2012

With all the five winter Derby winners and two previous Invitation cup winners participating, this year's field is like a rare stellar conjugation. Or, if you like, an Oscar gathering where the stars of the silver screen abound. Invitation Cup winners were, of course, ineligible to run earlier but five winter Derby winners did not come together often. The first time that it happened was in 1986 when Sir Bruce (McDowell Indian Derby, Gr.1), Tug of War (Calcutta Derby, Gr.1), Chaitanya Ratham (South India Derby, Gr.1), Amazing Grey (Bangalore Derby, Gr.1) and Grand  Entry (Golconda Derby, Gr.1) congregated at Guindy. They were all in a for a rude shock as Amorous Knight ran out a comfortable winner to give Pesi Shroff back-to-back Invitation Cup victories.    

Despite the star-studded line-up, the average field rating is only 97.2. That is substantially below the last ten years average of 105.97. Overall, there have been 23 winning favourites and eight 'got-abroad' winners. For a long time, a 'double' was impossible but Own Opinion and Tintinnabulation added a Stayers' Cup to their tally. The ratings are as shown on the site but they are not easy to digest. Indian Pharaoh beat Bradfield College by just a half length in the Golconda Derby. Neither has run since but there is difference of 22 points in their ratings.Psychic Force beat Indian Pharaoh by three-parts of a length in South India Derby, Gr.1 with My Opinion a further short-head behind. He was beaten more easily in the My Opinion in the South India St. Leger, Gr.2 but their respective ratings are hard to reconcile. That may be academic since they all carry equal weights but is still a food for thought'  

PAST THE POST

A unique feature of this year's race is that for the first time two siblings -- Desert God and Indian Pharaoh -- will be competing against each other and they will be carrying the same colours. As a winner of the Golconda Derby, Gr.1, Indian Pharaoh is a course and distance winner and must have a shout. However, the older half-brother probably stands taller on form. The stable pecking order can only be guessed. Incidentally, Running Flame, the dam of Desert God and Indian Pharaoh, herself won the Invitation Cup in 1999.

Apart from Running Flame, five other mares, themselves a winner of a Gr.1 race at an Invitation Cup week-end, have later produced a foal to emulate them. Forest Fantasy (1998 Invitation Cup) is the dam of Spectacular Quest (2005 Super Mile and 2006 Sprinters' Cup); Double Wish (1994 Super Mile) produced Dancing Dynamite (2009 Super Mile); Adamile (2001 Super Mile) got Amelia (2014 Super Mile) and Myrtlewood (2016 Super Mile); Palazzio's Sun (2010 Sprinters' Cup) is out of Palazzio (2003 Super Mile) and Time And Place (1988 Sprinters' Cup) begat Fire Arch (1997 Sprinters' Cup).

One more point about Desert God. He is unbeaten in five starts at Hyderabad all of which have been on the monsoon track. On Sunday, he will race for the first time on Malakpet's winter track.