SCINTILLATING WIN IN THE INDIAN OAKS, GR.1 MAKES JULIETTE A FAVOURITE FOR THE INDIAN DERBY

Juliette, has proved with her scintillating win in the Indian Oaks, Gr.1 that she is worthy of opening the favourite in the Indian Derby this year. However, there is a wait and watch feeling about, that the result of the Bangalore Derby might throw up some tough competition to her. War Hammer, the unbeaten colt, could be her real threat if he reigns supreme in the Bangalore Derby. He has never ventured outside his home turf, so Juliette is capable of luring him to a clash of the sexes should he make the trip.

The Karthik Ganapathy-trained Juliette (Musketier-Gimmesumsugar) a light framed bay filly did not get the best of rides in the Indian 1000 Guineas, her jockey Colm O’Donoghue taking her for a round the world trip before she could get serious, resulting  in a third place finish to Gift Of Grace and Cosmic Ray. There were no mistakes this time, with the same jockey riding her to perfection, winning by 5¾lengths over Well 

Connected in 2:29.86s.

Gift Of Grace had Notoriety on her out as she took the first right hand turn, followed by Thailand and See The Dream, Well Connected, Mishka’s Pride, Bostonia, Juliette kept off the pace, followed then by Hokkaido, Kate and in the rear was Armaity. The order remained largely the same with Thailand holding onto third, Well Connected and Juliette in fifth and sixth position while Armaity was the content backmarker. Passing the 800m marker Gift Of Grace took the task over but had Thailand looming large, with Well Connected and Juliette beautifully poised to begin their attack.  Into the straight and Thailand was niggled to get past Gift Of Grace, Well Connected darted onto the rails to take the shortest way home with a serious challenge, See The Dream tried to challenge but that was soon taken care of by Juliette who devoured ground with every stride. In a thrice she took care of the challenges from See The Dream, Gift Of Grace, Well Connected and Thailand romping home with 5¾ lengths to spare over Well Connected. Two lengths away in third was Thailand with Armaity putting in a terrific late run from last, to finish in fourth.    

The property of Dr A C Muthiah ran a blinder of a race in this long distance fillies Classic, placing her firmly into the forefront for the Indian Derby. If her jockey rides her to perfection as he did this time round, there is every possibility that she will strike again. However, with this year’s Indian Derby, being so open, there is likelihood that there might be over 20 runners in the race. As such the luck of the draw and the run of the race will be of paramount importance.