She’s All Heart!

The late Maj. Pradeep Mehra, founder of the Usha Stud, had an uncommonly good eye for what makes a “tap-root” broodmare. A cursory glance at the names of the ten head he selected in England in the winter of 1976 reveals the fact that no less than seven – Amber Forest, Celandine, Clocked, Fine Array, Happy Shark, Miss Goolagong, and Tina’s Way – have founded families that are delivering stakes winners with regularity to this day, more than 3 decades later.

Setting the World Alight

By trouncing the field in the Kingfisher Bangalore Derby, Gr.1, in July, Set Alight showed she had no peer, from amongst her sex and age group, that could trouble her. The proverbial exception to the rule is of course Autonomy, who has actually finished ahead of her on one occasion (albeit demoted), and it remains to be seen who has made the greater progress when the pair clash this coming  winter.
As compared to Autonomy, whose family has been in the country since 1977, Set Alight’s branch took root just about a dozen years ago, when the Usha Stud purchased Trois Etoiles, a three-year-old filly out of training, and imported her to India in late 1975. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Alysheba from the Blakeney mare Trefoil had been trained in France, where her solitary campaign lasted just five months, during which she scored thrice from six starts for Aylesfield Farms Ltd. All her wins were recorded in the Provinces – at tracks like Lisieux, Le Pin Au Haras and Rouen – and her trainer Dominic Boulard campaigned her exclusively over long distance trips ranging from 1900 m. to 2350 m. Interestingly, in all her victories, she was ridden by amateur or lady riders.

- Anil Mukhi