First, a frank confession. I have been covering the sport of horse racing for mid-day for 21 years now, and have been exceptionally lucky in accurately spotting the winner of the mid-day trophy 11 times in the last 13 years of its running. These past years have featured a variety of handicapping puzzles. There have been fields of as many as 18 runners and there have been as many as seven horses in a field of 15 that were making debut and hence were unknown entities. But never have I found the line up of the mid-day trophy as puzzling as the one that is slated for today at the Mahalaxmi racetrack.

Jockey Yash Narredu with winning horse Speed King during last year's mid-day Trophy at Mahalaxmi