The hottest Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby favourite in many years, Sir Cecil, couldn't get going at a crucial stage, perhaps due to his reported physical problems; the challenger from Kolkata, Adjudicate, struggled to keep pace; and it was left to the Rajesh Narredu-trained Star Superior to show his staying power and amazing turn of foot to sail away in solitary splendour and win by a margin of five lengths.

Racing absolutely unperturbed, nearly a dozen lengths away from the pace of the race set by Valegro (N S Parmar up), Star Superior (Suraj Narredu up), owned by Zavaray & Behroze Poonawalla in partnership with Adar C Poonawalla, bided his time until the final 600 meters of the mile-and-a-half Derby even as favourite Sir Cecil (David Allan up) made his move to give a chase to the leader. Only after straightening for home did Suraj nudge Star Superior, whose response was so electric and turn of foot so amazing, that as early as 300 meters from home, race caller Deepak Rajpal had no hesitation in declaring who the Derby winner was going to be.