The 13th running of the Nanoli Stud Pune Derby, which also happens to be the silver jubilee year of the monsoon racing's plum event, will be held at the Pune racetrack this Sunday. There are only six runners in the fray, Autonomy being the horse the other five will need to plot against. 

Whenever a big racing event is round the corner, the typical railbird is all tongue. Discussions over steaming cups get hotter than the contents of the cups. Everyone is out to defend his favourite horse, and it is generally done as much by extolling one's choice as by putting down all the other rivals. And if the favourite in the race happens to be a horse that was once touted as 'great' but could not even win his prep race, he automatically qualifies as the common 'whipping boy' of the challenger brigade. 

Autonomy

So Autonomy, owned by Jaydev Mody and trained by Bezan Chenoy, who failed to collar Flaming Ace in the S A Poonawalla Million despite trying hard, has understandably become a punching bag for all and sundry. Even the internet forum scene is no exception. There are three racing websites offering discussion boards for race lovers - and there is only one poster who has cast his vote for Autonomy, but then his racing wisdom is open to question as he is talking about Set Alight being favourite for the Pune Derby, blissfully unaware that she is not even in the fray.

In a television interview last year I was asked about Autonomy, and I had said I held him in high regard, I rated him as the best of the crop of 2005 (Set Alight had not come onto the scene at the time), and he is the type that is meant to win Classic glory. I have no hesitation in declaring that I stand by every word I said then. 

I am not at all perturbed by Autonomy's loss to Flaming Ace, I have seen this strange phenomenon quite often that when a horse switches course, he makes heavy weather of his first run and, at the winning post, wins or loses by a whisker against a decidedly inferior horse - Diego Rivera did it in Hyderabad after going from Mumbai, even Oasis Star, the greatest form horse of 2008, did the same thing after returning from Hyderabad. So that's not an issue really, and if it is, it will be settled beyond doubt on the day as even Flaming Ace has accepted to run in the Derby. 

What about the others? Dancing Dynamite and Antonio are not in the same league as Autonomy; the only danger is Phenomenale who scored a smashing victory on this track, and who is sure going to get better with every run. But she is perhaps taking on Autonomy a bit too soon, and I have a feeling if not her owners, her trainer surely knows the risk he is taking by asking a potential champion to lock horns with Autonomy at this stage. 

Could it be because the shrewd Shroff knows Autonomy might be the only threat to Set Alight for the forthcoming Indian Classics, and therefore wants to test him with the next best hope in his yard?

 If this is true, and if Autonomy wins the Nanoli Pune Derby as I expect, with ease and making it a one horse race, the future battle for the Classics may not be limited to a clash between Set Alight and Autonomy- it will be more a battle between trainers Pesi Shroff and Bezan Chenoy.

(gosavi.mid-day.com)