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Jockey Martin Dwyer with In The Spotlight after winning the Indian Derby Rajendra Gawankar | DNA
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It is difficult to imagine any woman athlete beating Usain Bolt to the finish line. However, if the Jamaican sprinter were a horse, chances are that a mare would have outraced him.
If McDowell’s Signature Indian Derby results over the last few years are anything to go by, mares regularly have defeated their male competitors. This has been the case in the last three years and this edition too saw the filly In The Spotlight win the derby overcoming strong challenge from stallions such as Picasso, Pronto Pronto, Pronto Star and Cardinal.
Filly Moonlight Romance had won the derby in 2011, while the year before that it was Jacqueline.
Studies suggest that unlike in humans, where a man is said to be 11 per cent faster on an average than a woman, the difference in performance level between two genders is narrow among animals like horses, dogs etc.
However, horse trainer Adhiraj Singh Jodha, whose horse Ranthambore was in the Indian Derby line-up, disagrees. “Definitely colts are faster than mares. It is just a matter of coincidence that last few Indian Derby races have been won by fillies. If you look at the overall record, more colts have won the Derby than fillies,” he claims. “But some fillies are exceptional and can easily outrun any colt.”
S Padmanabhan, who trained In The Spotlight, says that generally stallions are faster than mares, but depending on its breeding and pedigree, an extraordinary filly can beat a male horse.
“It is about breeding and pedigree of the filly. If it was bred from an exceptionally good stallion and a sure shot winning mare then it will be faster than a colt of lesser pedigree,” says Padmanabhan.
Adhiraj presents a hypothetical scene in which a champion stallion is mated with two mares both of which can attain the fastest speed recorded by a horse in the country — 65kmph.
“If one mare gives birth to a male and the other to a female, then the male offspring would definitely grow up to be faster than the filly,” he says.
Adhiraj informs that fillies are given a weight concession of one and a half kilograms at the Indian Derby. “As colts are supposed to be of superior build, they have to carry a jockey, who weighs a minimum of 57 kgs. However, for fillies the minimum weight of jockey required is 55.5 kgs,” he says. “This could be one of the factors in them winning regularly, especially if the colts do not boast of as good a pedigree as the fillies.”
Adhiraj says he believes colts are superior because on an average they weigh 10-20kgs more than the fillies. An average stallion would weigh 440-450 kgs while a filly can be around 420-430 kgs.
However, Adhiraj adds that there are always fillies that are exceptional. “Take 2010 derby winner Jacqueline for instance. It was a small horse, but beat other big and good pedigree horses in the race. Jacqueline was like a Maruti car with the engine of a Ferrari.”
About the Sunday’s race, he said, “In The Spotlight is an exceptional filly with a great pedigree. None of the colts of her generation are able to match up to her. It was not a surprise that she won.”
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