The three year old filly Juliette, the shock winner of the Maharaja Morvi Trophy, will have to shoulder the responsibility of carrying the western India hopes into the grade 1, StyleCracker Indian 1000 Guineas, the first Classic of the current Mumbai season, slated as the feature event of the Saturday card at Mahalaxmi. I generally consider "impressive win despite a long lay-off" as a guaranteed sign of the form upgrade, and therefore, without second thoughts, nominate Juliette (trained by Karthik G and to be ridden by Colm O'Donoghue) as the first choice.

Juliette, however, will have to watch out for two outstation challengers: Well Connected (David Allan up) from the yard of the Bangalore-based trainer S Padmanabhan and Gift Of Grace (P S Chouhan up) trained by S Attaollahi.