TheHorsesForSale.com

Kenya's biggest, most popular and the richest horse race, the Kenya Derby is on at Ngong Racecourse Sunday afternoon. It is being sponsored this year by the Nation Media Group through the newest addition the NMG stable, the Business Daily newspaper hence it will be known as the Business Daily Kenya Derby 2008.

The business publication was specifically chosen to be the sponsoring brand of this year's Derby, because it is celebrating its first anniversary this year.

Gates will therefore be opening from 11.30am with the first race expected to get underway from 12.00 noon. The Derby which is obviously the day's highlight is set for 3.30pm with a huge field of 17 runners to vie for the Derby crown plus more than Sh350,000 for the winning owner or owners.

During last year's race Martial Art trained and ridden by Julie McCann beat Vayu by a whole 12 lengths to claim Kenya's most prestigious race. A number of trainers have this year brought in jockeys from various countries in the world specifically to ride for them in the Derby.

The visiting jockeys include South Africa's Deo Smith, William Carson, a son of former UK champion jockey Willie Carson, Ralton Peters from South Africa, Dominic Fox also from UK, Tim Pretorius from South Africa and Zimbabwe's Morgan Nyamagwete.

During the Derby trial race over 2060m Ten Thirty beat Ricardo to win with ease which  makes Ten Thirty one of the top contenders in today's battle. But the horse everyone will have to watch is Kamari. Ridden by Carson, it is probably the only one in the field who has not only gone over the Derby distance more than once but also won in both trips, first ahead of Warai and later beat Ricardo who will be under the able hands of Deo Smith.

Big Bad Wolf

This is the first time in the history of Kenya's horse racing that horses bred outside the country have been allowed to participate in the top three year old classic race thus creating a possibility of a first non local bread horse to win the famous race.

Among those imported horses expected to parade for the greatest race will be Big Bad Wolf, Rototag and Motion Picture all of them imported from South Africa. But going by the form-book all of them  will have to beat Kamari or Ricardo.

The day also features the Kenya Gold Cup, the second leg of the George Drew Challenge Series where Intwa Dumela has a good chance of beating Cellini and Secret War.