BLAST FROM THE PAST

Unlike the much-hyped traditional classics, the short distance races are rather less glorified. The big stakes are concentrated around long-distance races, and understandably the owners too prefer taking a plunge in those. While the sprint races might not have the razzmatazz of a Derby, it certainly is a spectacle of pure speed!There are no pacemakers involved and you can strategize only till the gates are flung open. The Sprinters’ Cup, Gr.1 is arguably the ‘aiguille’ of short distance races in India, and The Dr. S.C. Jain Sprinters’ Championship, Gr.2 offers an exciting prelude and a fitting context to it.

Held generally a week after The Indian Derby, this race was first run in February 1994 as The Sprinters Gold Trophy, replacing The RWITC Ltd Committee Trophy. This race is much more than just being a pointer to The Sprinters’ Cup. As a matter of fact, 15 of last 26 Sprinters’ Cup winners had their lead-up in The Dr. S.C. Jain Sprinters’ Championship. Of late, the‘sprinters club’ of western India have been dominant, winning The Sprinters Cup 11 times in last 12 years, the only exception being S. Padmanabhan’sPalazzio’s Sun.

THE SPRINTERS’ CORONET

As far as the tag of best sprinter in the country is concerned, the trends ofthe past decade have been akin to the regime change of medieval India. The chestnut mare Oasis Star came to the fore, winning back-to-back Sprinters Cup, Gr.1 in 2008 & 2009.Then, P.Shroff-trained Attila took no time to grab the baton, winning in 2011 & 2012. Nefynfollowed up by winning in 2013 & 2014. A new bunch of sprinters in Solomon, Dancing Prances and Adam came along in the other half of the decade. The crown was then claimed by Ruffina winning the last two Sprinters’ Cups. Now that the twinkle-toed filly has retired, the quest for the best sprinter is on!

PAST DECADE IN NUMBERS

Even though this race is a good pointer to the Sprinters’ Cup held on the weekend of the invitational races, it must be noted that only two horses – Nefyn (2013) and Ruffina (2018) won this race in their lead-up. The Poonawallagroup of farms has bred 6 winners of The Dr. S.C. Jain Sprinters’ Championship sired by 3 different sires. Of them, Ace was represented thrice by Dancing Prances, who won in 2015, 2016 & 2017. A healthy number of favorites – 6, have won the race, though the last year Captain Courage won at 10/1. Top-rated horses have won it exactly half the number of times. The average field rating has been a high 113, significantly higher than Sunday’s 100. The average winner rating is 106 and only Iron Age & Intense Stylist are rated above that.

THE CONTENDERS AND THE PRETENDERS

With the departure of Ruffina from the racing scene, the ‘royal seat’ is lying vacant for about a year now. One horse that appears like a true heir to the throne of sprinters is the Manjri-bred Iron Age (Strong Suit - Intrigue). Iron Age has absolutely ‘come of age’, if I may say so, in such a splendid fashion that he is being touted as an obvious choice for next month’s Sprinters Cup. Being the only graded winner in the field, Iron Age has won 9 times in 13 starts. Not only he is coming into this race off a graded hat-trick, his last win was a blazing one, where he shattered the 5f.track record, in 56.91 seconds. He tasted defeat exactly a year ago in the very same race but has since won 5 straight races in eye-catching timings on each occasion.

In his racing career, Rahy had modest success but he quickly grabbed attention as a sire. Sent to the Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, Rahy sired a total of 12 millionaires. His son Strong Suit wasn’t as successful as his other progeny, perhaps overshadowed by contemporaries like Frankel and Dream Ahead. But Strong Suit was remarkable at shorter distances and won 5 races between 6f and 8f. Iron Age appears to have acquired speed from his sire. It must be acknowledged that sprinters don’t hold onto their form for very long and have a greater number of peaks and troughs in their career. That said,Iron Age would want to hold onto his form intact, at least for the next two races.

It was a good 2018 for Intense Stylist (Western Aristocrat – Spica) until he met true competition in Sir Cecil’s Indian 2000 Guineas. He had won his 3 starts before the Guineas and was a classic hopeful, until he was beaten there and then reverted to handicap races. Even though he won 3 races after that in handicap company, none of them were as stylish as those of Iron Age. It’s rather strange that he has appeared comfortable at 5f and 7f, but not so at 6f. In his 4 starts over 6f, Intense Stylist has won only once, that was in Class 3. In fact, he doesn’t appearto be a 6-furlong specialist.

From the same stud farm, Clymene (Western Aristocrat – Magdalena) started her career two summer ago, registering 4 wins in no time, all of them over 5f. But since then, she hasn’t performed as many expected her to. In last year’s Sprinters’ Cup, she finished 11/11. Her performance during the last Pune seasondoesn’toffer much to discuss either. She has a solitary bracket in her last 11 starts, spread across 14 months.Clymene is a winner of 6 starts, and 5 of them have been at 5f. She was nonetheless targeted at 6f too, and it was only after 9 unsuccessful attempts that she won over this distance. That certainly testifies that 1200m is not the ‘most suitable’ distance for her. 

Even though sugarcane looks like a bamboo, you can’t use it to make houses and though bamboo looks like a sugarcane, you can’t make juice out of it. This primary-grade analogy aptly suits Augustus Caesar (Holy Roman Emperor – Snowy Day In LA). A classic aspirant and earlier thought of as a stayer, Augustus Caesar could not make it to the cream of last year’s classic crop, and his trainer Altamash Ahmed took no time to acknowledgethe sugarcane-bamboo theory and reverted him to short distances. After finishing 12th in last year’s Indian Derby, Augustus Caesar has not run beyond 7f since. Interestingly, he has also never been out of top-2 in all 6 starts that followed the Derby. He is coming off 3 straight victories, but it must not be ignored that he carried low weightsin all those races. He gave a fighting display on his last start, winning a ding-dong battle by a short neck against Awesome One, who was conceding 9kgs. Now that Augustus Caesarfacestougher opponents, it will be worth watching if he can maintain his form carrying a higher weight. Incidentally, he is also the only horse in this field who has not faced any of the other 4 runners before.

From the very same yard, La Magnifique (Shamardal – Ajaweed) has been winless since December 2018. This season, he finished 5 lengths behind Clymene, 2 ½ lengths behind Iron Age and ½ lengths shy of Intense Stylist in three different starts. That said,if there is any pretender in the field, it has to be La Magnifique.

THE DENOUEMENT

As we enter the second half of the season, the track is likely to get faster, as it does everywhere during this time of the year.Without an iota of doubt, Iron Age will be the top market fancy this Sunday. Going into the race unbeaten in his last 5 starts, including 3 graded races is something that further strengthens the point. Intense Stylist can be the next best to challenge him. Clymene, who can be expected to put up a thrilling finish.