Race Preview The Dr M A M Ramaswamy Stayers Cup Gr 1 2019 at the Indian Turf Invitation Cup Weekend in #Hyderabad #IndianTurfInvitationCup #InvitationCup2019

Raees, an obdurate stayer, enjoys a good rating and is following a successful path having won the Byculla Club Cup on his last outing. He must have a large following. This is a good race for favourites and older horses with 18 public fancies and 30 older horses coming good in 38 renewals. In the last ten years, four highest rated horses have scored.

A close look at the winners of last ten years shows that most of them had a black-type win over 2400 m. or more or had placed in a Gr.1 race over those distances. On that basis, Reunion (Dancing Forever - Ambos) fits the bill. Two of his five wins are over 2400 m. They were not black-type races but he has placed in four St. Legers including a second to Caprisca in the Indian St .Leger, Gr.1. He has been consistent runner, giving his best at all times. His grandam is a full-sister to the dam of Golconda Derby, Gr.1 winner Roses In Bloom. Two of Hyderabad's three wins at the big week-end in the last ten years have come in this race.

Frivolous (Misremebered - Christmas Fever) has run second to Raees in the Suresh Mahindra Trophy as well as the Byculla Club Cup. He was then getting weight from Imtiaz Sait's ward and so will find it difficult to turn the tables at level weights. Besides, he has not won for over 500 days. It is a curious fact that the dam of Raees and the sire of Frivolous are half-brother and sister.

Kambaku (Win Legend - Star of the Crop) is a winner of the Governor's Cup, Gr.3 over 2400 m. and has a very good pedigree. His last run in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, Gr.3 at Calcutta was dismal. He has always looked like a horse capable of winning a good race but has invariably disappointed. Such horses often pop up against expectations.

Talking of pedigrees, the mare Like Wise (Dancing Forever - Farha), is one to drool over, especially her dam side. The third dam of Like Wise is that wonderful Wildenstein mare All Along, a winner of five Gr.1 races including the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Like Wise has totted up eight wins so far and is the highest rated runner in the field. She has no black-type, and has not won beyond 1800 m. She will carry the silks made famous by the man in whose memory the race is being run.

The only threat to the older horses is posed by Sacred Roman (Holy Roman Emperor - Clicquot). The gelding, trained by Pesi Shroff, was beaten narrowly by Star Superior in the Ramniwas Ramnarain Ruia Gold Cup, Gr.3 but finished well adrift in the Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby, Gr.1 where he was ridden with much more restraint. Perhaps, he prefers to run freer. He is bred to stay and his run in this race will give a pointer to the chances of the Classic generation in the Invitation Cup on Sunday. Shroff hasn't pitched too many four year-olds in the Stayers' Cup, Gr.1. Just two in the last ten years; Tiger Tops who was second to Astapi in 2015 and Lord of the Sea who finished fourth last year at Calcutta. It hard to see Sacred Roman missing the board and he could well surprise the older horses if the race is run to his liking.

Watchmyscript (Whatsthescript -Yas Marina) has been a consistent mare who hasn't run many bad races in her 23 starts but most of them have been at shorter distances. Only twice has she ventured beyond 2000 m. First was in the Golconda Derby, Gr.1 where she ran off the board and then on her last outing when she beat three rivals to win the Stayers' Trial Stakes and earned an invitation to run here. Fabulous was one of those three opponents; out of form -- or unfit -- Booker Jones and Azzurro were the other two. She is not going to have it easy on Saturday but she runs in the Mahindra colours which have been having a good run for sometime now.

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