IMMORTALITY
By Cyrus J. Madan
Was it a premonition, a Gnostic feeling or a Psychic Light shining down on Ameeta Mehra that revealed something special to her when she decided to name a filly Immortality. The four year old daughter of Champion Sire Multidimensional, bred at the Usha Stud kept her date with destiny to win the Grade 1 Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby in emphatic fashion. Owned by Ms. Ameeta Mehra, representing Mehra Stud And Agricultural Farms Pvt. Ltd and Mrs. Liane Luthria, Immortality was trained by Pesi Shroff and jockey Suraj Narredu made no mistake to pick up his third successive Indian Derby.
The Derby turned out to be a virtual replay of the Villoo Poonawalla Indian Oaks. Only this time around Immortality proved much too strong for Forest Flame and Alluring Silver. A lot has been said about jockey P.S.Chouhan making his run a bit too early on the grey, but I would tend to disagree with that school of thought. The facts are there in black and white. In the Oaks, Immortality got the better of Forest Flame by a whisker while Alluring Silver was 3 lengths adrift in third. In the Derby, Immortality increased her winning margin over Forest Flame to a length and half, while Alluring Silver ran her race and stayed three lengths behind the winner.. The disappointment was undoubtedly Lagarde. He just never seemed to settle and never really got into the race whatsoever.
Mahalaxmi Racecourse may have had a surreal feel about it, what with the Derby being run “Behind Closed Doors” but there certainly wasn’t anything phantasmagorical, unreal or dreamlike from what unfolded on the track. It was a master class or to coin a new phrase and avoid being chauvinistic, a “mistress class” performance. Immortality lived up to her name and led the charge of the fairer sex who made the eight colts in the field of thirteen eat humble pie. 2021 was the Ladies Derby with Immortality, Forest Flame and Alluring Silver grabbing the first three places.
The “Winter of Discontent” became a “Glorious Summer” for the Usha Stud as they reeled off thirteen Graded Races including 8 Classics in a span of four months. Intriguingly, when you look at the names of the horses that cornered the glory one cannot help but think that there was something of a cosmic link or perhaps a psychic phenomenon between them that seemed to pop up each time, at least in some of them.
Of course the star was undoubtedly IMMORTALITY, the winner of the Indian Derby, the Indian Oaks and the Golconda Derby. She’s inscribed her names as one of the immortals in the archives of Derby stardom. Then you have the 3 year old filly MIRACLE ( Multidimensional ex Khalila) who produced a divine performance to win the Grade 1 Poonawalla Breeders Million not to mention the Panchshil Breeders Produce Stakes (Grade 3). COSMOS the 6 year old son of Multidimensional ex Hills and Stars, created a new life for himself in the Winter. Trained by Darius Byramji, he was unbeaten in 4 starts and that included a St. Leger Double (Grade 2). In Kolkata you had PSYCHIC FORCE a full brother to Immortality who made the Grade 1 Indian Champion Cup his own. Between the four, they accounted for 8 out of the 13 Graded Race victories that were notched up. Would that have been a Psychic Phenomenon!!!
