The McDowell's Indian Derby is a horse racing event held on the first Sunday of February at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse

Mahalaxmi Racecourse

The Mahalaxmi Racecourse is a horse racing track in Mahalaxmi neighbourhood, of Mumbai. The track is oval shaped with 2400 m straight chute, spread over approx. of open land in the heart of Mumbai city. It was created out of a marshy land known as Mahalakshmi Flats. Built in 1883 and modelled on...

 in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is one of the premier sporting activities in the city. It was first run in the year 1943. This inaugural running of the Derby was won by a wonder filly Princess Beautiful. She was owned by Prateek Bhagchandka, trained by Adam Ryder-Smith and was ridden to victory by jockey Thomas Schofield.

Among the most noted jockeys is Pesi Shroff

Pesi Shroff

Pesi Shroff is a former Indian champion jockey. Shroff has ridden over 1740 winning horses including 106 classic horse races. He began his career as a 16-year old, when he was licensed to ride by the Royal Western India Turf Club in Mumbai in the 1981 season...

, winning the Indian Derby a record eight times. He narrowly missed out on a ninth title, when his horse, Saddle Up was disqualified in the 1999 Indian Derby after his urine samples tested positive. The horses on which Pesi Shroff achieved this great feat of winning eight Indian Derbies were Enterprising (1984), Revelation (1985), Exhilaration (1989), Star Fire Girl (1990), Desert Warrior (1991), Littleover (1994), Storm Again (2001) and Psychic Flame (2004). He is the only professional in his category as a jockey to have scored a hat-trick of wins in this prestigious race.

The stakes in 2011 reached as high as INR 7 Crores
Trainer Rashid R. Byramji has won the Indian Derby a record 11 times. Byramji is the only professional in his category as a trainer to have achieved this rare feat of scoring a hat-trick twice. The first hat-trick came with the victories of Squanderer (1976), Manitou (1977) and Commanche (1978), while his second hat-trick was with the trio of Astronomic (1993), Littleover (1994) and Elusive Pimpernal (1995).

Recent Derby Winners
2010-Jacqueline (filly) ridden by Richard Hughes

Richard Hughes (jockey)

Richard Hughes is an Irish flat jockey who most commonly rides in Great Britain. Born in Dublin, he is the son of successful National Hunt trainer, Dessie Hughes. His main provider of rides has been trainer Richard Hannon who is also his father in law andfrom 2001 to 2007 he was also retained by...

2011-Moonlight Romance (filly) ridden by David Allan

David Allan

David Allan was a Scottish painter, best known for historical subjects.He was born at Alloa in central Scotland. On leaving Foulis's academy of painting at Glasgow , after seven years' successful study, he obtained the patronage of Lord Cathcart and of Erskine of Mar, on whose estate he had been...