Rajan Bala, one of a rare kind

 

Psychic Star dazzles as Usha Stud rewrites the rulebook

 

By Sharan Kumar

 

The Indian Oaks, Usha Stud Farm, and trainer Pesi Shroff—horse racing’s most overplayed anthem—struck yet another chord of predictability, as Psychic Star cruised to victory in the Gr 1 Villoo Poonawalla Indian Oaks, the third classic of the season at Mahalakshmi on Sunday. This annual spectacle of dominance is less a competition and more a recurring episode in the long-running series titled Pesi’s Unstoppable Winning Streak. Swap out the horse, rinse, repeat. The race? A mere formality—like checking the box on inevitability.

 

The 2024 edition brought us Psychic Star, a filly with a pedigree that practically demands a trophy room. Her dam, Psychic Light, had already gifted racing royalty in Immortality, a dual crown winner who snatched both the Indian Oaks and the Indian Derby. Psychic Star, clearly not content living in anyone’s shadow, has already added the Indian 1000 Guineas and the Oaks to her résumé. But lest we get carried away, the real test looms—she’s got the Indian Derby next. Facing the colts in three weeks.

 

Usha Stud Farm, meanwhile, continues its quasi-divine act of producing fillies that seem genetically engineered to win. They’ve elevated horse breeding to an art form so precise, it feels like the rest are just showing up for participation ribbons. If horse racing were a high school play, Usha’s fillies would snag all the lead roles, while everyone else fights over who gets to play the tree.

 

In the last decade, the monotony of Usha Stud Farm and Pesi Shroff’s ironclad grip on the Oaks was disrupted by a certain wonder horse named Juliette. That brief rebellion felt less like a race and more like the universe deciding to mess with a well-rehearsed script. It was a fleeting jolt—a glitch in an otherwise seamless symphony of supremacy. Naturally, Usha didn’t take long to restore order, proving that the exception only serves to highlight the rule: they are unbeatable when it matters most.

 

This year’s success with Psychic Star is especially sweet for Usha Stud Farm, and not just because the filly continued their classic-winning streak. It’s the story behind her pedigree that makes it a triumph of risk-taking. Psychic Star’s sire, Multitude, was a champion sprinter—hardly the archetype for breeding classic distance winners. Add to that her dam, Psychic Light, who had already made waves by producing a Bangalore Derby winner in Supernatural. While many breeders cling to imported stallions paired with top-tier mares, preferably foreign mares as their golden formula, Usha bucked the trend.

 

The Indian breeding community often scoffs at the idea of betting on homegrown stallions, viewing it as a financial risk too great to stomach. After all, Indian buyers are pedigree snobs, gravitating toward the allure of flashy international bloodlines. Under such circumstances, Usha’s decision to roll the dice on a sprinting stallion like Multitude to produce a classic-winning filly was nothing short of audacious. But Ameeta Mehra, the visionary behind Usha Stud Farm, clearly doesn’t shy away from a gamble when her instincts tell her the odds are in her favour. And this time, her conviction paid off in spades. If anyone deserves a hearty pat on the back—or better yet, a victory parade—it’s her. While others play it safe, Ameeta continues to rewrite the rules, one risk at a time.

 

Psychic Star might not have burst onto the scene like a comet, but she eventually found her groove after taking a leisurely four outings to shed her maiden status. Clearly, she preferred a slow build-up to greatness. Since then, the filly has been ticking off milestones like they’re items on her grocery list. On paper, Psychic Star should have been a no-brainer for the “on-money favourite” tag, but apparently, her pedigree’s sprinting leanings and the daunting mile-and-a-half trip had some sceptics clutching their betting slips with doubt. Class spoke louder than caution, and the filly silenced her critics in style.

 

Jockey Vivek G, growing in confidence (and possibly charisma), rode a picture-perfect race, biding his time in the fourth or fifth spot. Meanwhile, Final Call, piloted by Sandesh, seemed to have mistaken the race for an F1 time trial, charging ahead on what can only be described as a kamikaze mission. The filly burned through her fuel reserves like a rookie with no concept of endurance, fading out of the picture just when things were about to get interesting.

 

The rest of the field played it safer. Expedite trailed Final Call in second, followed by Regina Memorabilis, Psychic Star, and the supporting cast: Substantial, Field of Dreams, Pyrite, Star of Night, La Dolce Vita (possibly dreaming of desserts rather than winning), and Thalassa. Final Call clung to the lead until the final furlong when Psychic Star decided it was time to get serious. Gliding past the spent leader with the grace of a ballerina and the speed of a freight train, she left Expedite fighting for relevance as the backmarkers suddenly remembered they were in a race.

 

Psychic Star cruised to victory with a nonchalant two-length margin, while Regina Memorabilis nabbed second place in a photo finish over Expedite, who clung to third by a whisker. Thalassa, making a heroic late dash from the tail of the field, just missed out on a podium spot. The timing? Well, let’s just say it was reflective of a race where endurance wasn’t everyone’s forte—2 minutes and 33.683 seconds, if you’re keeping score.

 

Next up for Psychic Star is the Indian Derby, where she’ll play second fiddle to her stablemate Santissimo, the yard’s main hope and the darling of the public. No pressure, though—Psychic Star has already proven she can handle sceptics, sprinters’ genes, and a daunting trip to the “unknown frontier.”

 

Pesi Shroff’s Indian Oaks record reads less like a list of victories and more like a chapter out of a dynasty's rulebook. Thirteen wins in total, with only one hiccup in the last 11 years courtesy of the iron-willed Juliette, who must have decided that Pesi didn’t need all the trophies. From Blue Ribbon’s triumph in 2007 to Psychic Star’s stellar win in 2025, it’s been an unrelenting parade of excellence, where Oaks Day has practically become Shroff Appreciation Day.

The man doesn’t just dominate; he redefines what dominance looks like. As a jockey, he was a class apart, and as a trainer, he seems intent on proving that he’s just as unstoppable with a stopwatch as he was with reins in hand.