This year's Indian Oaks is unique. For the first time, it is being run as late as March. Even more so because never before in its history of seventy seven years has it drawn a field which includes five individual Classic winners of whom one is unbeaten, four have won previously over the distance and two have a regional Derby to their credit. We are unlikely to see such a stellar congregation in future because this year's gathering owes much to an altered racing calendar necessitated by the pandemic. By racing norms, one would expect the winner to emerge from this quintet. But these are unusual times and the crop of 2017 has been hampered severely in its natural development. We have had two maiden Classic winners earlier in the year and the possibility of a late bloomer upsetting the applecart exists.

Born Queen has five wins from five starts. Two earlier fillies -- Her Majesty (1947) and Heliantha (1974) -- went unbeaten into the Indian Oaks and triumphed. That should be heartening to the connections of Tazahum's daughter. She has been very impressive in her three Classics at Chennai exhibiting a good cruising speed, ability to settle anywhere in the field, a smooth changing of gears followed by a devastating acceleration. The opposition at Guindy wasn't very daunting but she did dispose of her rivals without any alarms. She will be running on Sunday after a gap of 51 days -- all other fillies have shorter gaps to their previous runs -- which is a bit disconcerting but her track work indicates that she is in fine fettle. Born Queen is clearly the one on whom all guns will be trained. Suraj Narredu has guided her in her last four wins and he is committed to ride her. He has not yet been declared to ride the filly as there was a disciplinary matter pending that has since been stayed and he is now cleared to ride, it would have affected her chances badly had he not been cleared as all other leading jockeys were booked.

Like Born Queen, Forest Flame and Lombardy -- both daughters of stallion Leitir Mor -- have five wins but the former has been beaten once and the latter twice. Forest Flame is a winner of the Poonawalla Breeders' Multi-Million, Gr.1, the Gool and Soli Poonawalla Indian 1000 Guineas, Gr.1 and the Bangalore 1000 Guineas, Gr.2. Her defeat came in the Kingfisher Ultra Bangalore Derby, Gr.1 when she essayed the distance for the  first time. The horses who finished ahead of her were the winner Lagarde and the runner-up Sovereign Legend so she is yet to be beaten by a filly. She is looking to become the twenty fourth filly to bag the One Thousand-Oaks double. It is significant that P. Trevor will be riding her in preference to the Golconda Derby winner Lombardy.

The Golconda 1000 Guineas, Gr. 2 winner Lombardy, too, was beaten the first time she tacked 2400 m. in the Golconda Oaks, Gr.2.  Two weeks later, Lombardy won the Golconda Derby, Gr.1 over the same distance and what contributed to her win immensely was a change of tactics. In the Oaks, where the early pace was funeral, she was given a forward race but lacked a sustained finishing kick in the straight to get better of Immortality who had grabbed the lead at 900 m. In the Derby, Lombardy was dropped right out of it as first Hidden Hope -- in which the connections had a share -- made the running. At 900 m. marker Ashwa Bravo -- running in the same colours as Lombardy -- took over with the filly still last. Her energy conserved in the initial part of the  race, Lombardy was able  to produce a much more purposeful stretch run and win the race. The Golconda Derby time was faster than the Golconda Oaks by about four seconds. In the Derby, the first half of the race was faster but the second part was run in more or less the same fractions. Since the Oaks is run before the Derby, it is rare to find a Derby winner like Born Queen and Lombardy in an Oaks.  They are not the first ones to do so, though. The first filly to earn that distinction was Fair Haven in 1969 when she won the Indian Oaks after having already pocketed the Calcutta Derby. Lombardy, abandoned by Trevor, will now have Y.S. Srinath -- who has never ridden her before in a race -- aboard on Sunday.

The other two Classic winners, Antibes and Immortality, are daughters of Multidimensional. Both have won an Oaks on only their third start and so have scope for improvement. Antibes won the Bangalore Oaks, Gr.2 as a maiden, coming from behind with a smooth run. In the next outing in the Kingfisher Ultra Bangalore Derby, Gr.1, she held a forward pitch throughout and her effort in the straight was lukewarm. Still, she was on the board, only a shade over two lengths behind Forest Flame whereas the margin was seven lengths in the Bangalore 1000 Guineas, Gr.2. She could revert to the Oaks tactics and be held up on Sunday. Whether that will enable  her to make up those two lengths or so on Forest Flame will be known only after the race. S.John will be atop Antibes as he was in the Bangalore Oaks, Gr.2

Like Antibes, Immortality won the Golconda Oaks, Gr.2 on her only third start. She was last of fourteen on her debut as a two year-old but racing after over a year, she posted her first win over a mile at Pune. On her next start, she won the Golconda Oaks, Gr.2 beating Lombardy by two and a quarter lengths.  Her Oaks success owes in a large measure to the intrepidity of her jockey P.S. Chouhan who, irked by the early slow pace set by her stablemate, decided to take the bull by the horns and hustled his mount into the lead with 900 m. to go. Lombardy did come alongside her in the straight but Immortality had something in reserve to shrug off the challenge. One cannot be sure whether grabbing the lead so early was a pre-race plan or the jockey's split-second decision. It appears to be the latter. Her tactics on Sunday will be interesting to see and perhaps, like Antibes, she may opt to come off the pace. Chouhan has ridden her in both her wins and he will again pilot her. Immortality is a full-sister to Psychic Force who won the South India Derby, Gr.1 two years ago. Their dam, Psychic Light, was born blind but has now produced two Classic winners. The Team Multidimensional would have been stronger had Zoya and Miss Muffet not been euthanised following track mishaps. Still, it poses a formidable challenge. 

If a filly other than the five discussed is to win the Oaks this year, it could be Lake Tahoe. She is still a maiden but that should not be off-putting because Lady Madonna not only won this race in 1974 as a maiden but put a distance between herself and the second placed filly but also broke the race record. Lake Tahoe is by Multidimensional like Antibes and Immortality and like them has raced only thrice since the resumption of racing. She has placed in the Oaks at Bangalore and Hyderabad. At Bangalore she came from behind while at Malakpet she ran a forward race. She was ridden by Suraj Narredu in both the Oaks but as he is likely to be aboard Born Queen, Zervan holds the reins on Sunday. Lake Tahoe is a full-sister to the smart Tasawwur. 

Seasons Greeting (Mukhadram - Auntie Kathryn) merits a mention on two counts. Firstly, she is one of the four final entries with Born Queen, Alluring Silver and Antibes  being the other three. Secondly, she is one of the two 'got-abroads' in the race. She eked out a hard fought victory beating stablemate Arcadia over 2000 m. last time out and on that showing she has plenty to find to be a threat here. Her dam, who cost Highgrove Stud 13,000 gns. at 2016 Tattersalls December Sale, came out of the maidens on her seventeenth start over a scurry. Her two winners abroad did not win beyond a mile. Mukhdram adds a bit of stamina and lots of class to Seasons Greetings who tackles a daunting task on Sunday.  

There are many sub-plots to the main narrative. The four Leitir Mors all run in the Poonawalla colours but have different trainers. The three Multidimensional fillies carry different colours. Pesi Shroff will saddle five fillies for five different owners.  This race could well be decided by the tactics adopted. Like there are many ways of skinning a cat, a race can be run in different ways. One possible scenario is that Successor will have gone to the front by the time they approach the Hornby Vellard Corner with Alluring Silver handy and Forest Flame and Lombardy well in the rear. When Successor begins to run out of gas, Alluring Silver will take over and try to open a gap early in the straight. That manoeuvre would be a ploy to make her rivals to play their hand earlier than planned because the grey filly is good enough to exploit an early advantage. Forest Flame and Lombardy could then swoop from behind. The beauty of racing is that something unexpected always happens and the race does not conform to the script. Make no mistake. It is going to be a fascinating race to watch.

Last Ten Years Trends

Six favourites have been successful in the last ten years. That is the best trend because only one last start winner. a solitary outstation based filly and two top-rated fillies have been successful. On an average, ten fillies have participated each year in the Oaks and average field rating has been 70. This year we have a larger field but the field rating is only 56. Blame the lack of racing in the summer and the monsoons for that. 'Got-abroad' fillies have won four times. Colm O'Donoghue has been the most successful jockey with two wins but he is not riding on Sunday while Shroff has saddled six winners. Of the jockeys with a mount on Sunday, P.S. Chouhan (Myrtlewood, 2016), Neeraj Rawal (Temerity, 2017) and P. Trevor (Roberta, 2019) have tasted Oaks success in the last ten years while Y.S. Srinath was successful a little before with Riyasat in 2009. Fillies bred at the Usha Stud have won five times with Multidimensional being responsible for three of them.
  
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One other feature of this year's Oaks is that the Ruia, the natural lead-up to the Indian Derby, is being run on the same day. Many of the colts and geldings intending to run in the Derby will be on show and it promises to be as cracking a race as the Oaks. It is a coincidence that  both, the Oaks and the Ruia, will be contested by the same number of runners. 

In the mid-1950s, R.W.I.T.C., Ltd. introduced the Trial Stakes for four year-olds over 2000 m. The race name was later changed to Sir H.M. Mehta Gold Cup and it was so run for seven years. Then, in 1963, the name was again changed to Ramniwas Ramnarain Ruia Gold Cup and that name has remained unchanged till today. It is a fine lead-up race though somewhere down the line it acquired, rather unfairly, the tag of being a "hoodoo" race. Six winners of the Ruia have claimed the Indian Derby-Invitation Cup double subsequently, fifteen have won the Indian Derby, eight did not win the Derby but came out on top in the Invitation Cup and three have gone on to be victorious in the Indian St. Leger. Hardly the record of a "hoodoo" race.