The St. Leger, run at Doncaster, is the oldest Classic in the world. Instituted in 1776, it was won by a horse called Allabaculia. It was only in 1814 that the first One Thousand  Guineas was run and it completed the full complement of five Classics. The St. Leger, run over approximately 2900 m., is traditionally the last Classic of the season. The Indian St. Leger came into being a year after the Indian Derby and was initially called the Governor-General's Cup. It was  in 1950, after India had become a Republic, that the race name was changed to Indian St. Leger but the earlier six runnings are generally recognised as forerunners. The race has alternated between Mumbai and Pune and Sunday's renewal will be a landmark 75th and the 31st across the Ghats.

As the longest and last of all Indian Classics, the race has a charm of its own. It gets added importance when a horse is in line for a Triple Crown. There have been twenty such occasions previously but three of the contenders did not run the race, ten bagged the Triple Crown while while seven were humbled at the last hurdle. This year, the first four Indian Classics have been won by four different horses and the Triple Crown is not on line. The race offers a chance for the staying horses to come into their own and for 27 of  previous winners it represents their sole Classic success.

The average field for the Indian St. Leger in the last eight renewals at Pune has been a little over 5. This year, there are only four runners as there were in 2014 when Amazing Grace won. In 2012, In The Spotlight had only two rivals to dispose of. If someone were to construe it as a pointer that St. Leger is won by a filly when the field is small, he wouldn't be wrong. The pointers represent what has happened in past but are no guarantee to what unfolds in the future.

There are two Gr.1 winning fillies, Adjudicate and Roberta, in contention on Sunday. They are confronted by a grey gelding, Bushtops, who is in the form of his life. The last grey to win this race was Capricorn way back in 1987 when, coincidentally, there were four runners. Bushtops (Archipenko - Etroubles) is a 'got-abroad' as were An Acquired Taste (2013) and Quasar (2015). The grey clearly revels on the Pune track as he has won four of his five starts there with the only poor run coming in Pioneer's Pune Derby, Gr.1 last year. The average winning distance of Archipenko's progeny is 9.2 fur. while Etroubles won one of her two starts in Italy over a mile. There are some notable stamina influences along the tail-female line of Bushops -- Natroun, Mill Reef and Prince Bio -- and he traces to Aga Khan's Classic foundation mare Mumtaz Mahal. He has, however, not yet raced beyond 2400 m.

Bushtops easily accounted for Adjudicate (Multidimensional - Alvarita) in the Eve Champion Trophy, Gr.3 (2000 m.) and Idar Gold Trophy, Gr.3 (2400 m.) by an almost identical margin of three lengths and certainly had something in hand. The filly was giving him 8.5 kgs. in the former race and 5 kgs. in the latter. On Sunday, he will have to concede 1.5 kgs. to Adjudicate. Even a newbie amateur handicapper can work out that the weights favour the filly. The handicap alone, however, is insufficient to decide the issue since neither Bushtops nor Adjudicate has as yet raced beyond 2400 m.and the effect of those additional 400 m. could be critical. Bushtops is trained by M.K. Jadhav whose last Classic winner, The Pelican, won this very race in the same colours in 2002.

Those colours will also be sported by Roberta (Multidimensional - Moonlight Romance), the winner of Hindustan Times Palate Fest Indian Oaks, Gr.1. That was a weak Indian Oaks and none of the eight fillies who contested it have subsequently won a black-type race. Roberta, by a Champion Sire out of the only filly to bag the Derby Bangalore-Indian Derby-Invitation Cup, is superbly be bred. It would be true to say that her performance so far has been well short of the expectations and that is because she has been beset with a variety of physical problems. In the circumstances, her trainer Pesi Shroff -- who has saddled three of the last eight winners of the race -- has done well to get a Gr.1 Classic out of her. After winning the Indian Oaks, Roberta was kept on ice till the Bangalore summer season where her four starts did not include a winning bracket. In two of those -- The Chief Justice Cup, Gr.3 (1800 m.) and Maharaja's Cup, Gr.2 (2200 m.) -- Adjudicate got the better of Roberta though in the the first named race the Shirkes' rusty filly was given an easy lung-opener. A further line to the two fillies is through Desert God. Adjudicate has beaten Desert God twice -- first in the Indian Turf Invitation Cup at Hyderabad and then in the Chief Justice's Cup, Gr.3 at Bangalore -- while Roberta was a close second to India's all-time highest stakes earner in the Bangalore St. Leger, Gr.2.

Roberta is the only runner in the field who has raced -- and creditably -- over 2800 m. Adjudicate has never won at Pune in her four starts while Roberta has never lost a race there. Roberta has not raced during the current Pune season but has been kept simmering -- she has had ten workouts in the first 18 days of September alone -- and fingers will have to be crossed that she hasn't boiled over. (It is hard to recollect another Classic contender being worked so hard and so often prior to a race). More than individual ratings and previous handicap pointers, the way the race is run will decide the outcome. Bushtops, Adjudicate and Roberta have won their races coming from behind though Roberta is not averse to running in front. In the Indian Oaks, she had shot to the front well before the final bend. If she doesn't win, it will be the 14th instance of the Indian Classics being won by five different horses in one year. The best wins of Adjudicate came when David Allan or Y.S. Srinath held her up at the rear in the early stages; Suraj Narredu and A. Sandesh have positioned her more handy. 

Golden Fortune (Sedgefield - Fabulous Fortune) comes from Hyderabad but is owned by Mr. Champaklal Zaveri, a long serving former member of the R.W.I.T.C. Committee. Sedgefield has sired a few decent stayers like Raees and Vulcan. L.V.R. Deshmukh's ward, though, has not raced or won beyond 2000 m. so far and is yet to win a black-type race. If he finishes ahead of any one of his three rivals, he will have done extremely well.  

A small field but no obvious winner. Bushtops, Adjudicate and Roberta have nearly equal claims as also negatives.The average rating of the field in last eight years for this race is 101. It is 97.5 this year.  If Roberta is rated on her run behind Desert God in the Bangalore St. Leger, it would be much higher.  For those who set store by previous trends, here are some pointers. In the last eight renewals,  three winners of the Idar Gold Trophy, Gr.3 have annexed the Indian St. Leger, Gr.1; five favourites and four top rated contenders have come up trumps while two fillies and three 'got-abroads' have triumphed. Shroff holds the pride of place among the trainers as does A. Sandesh in the fraternity of jockeys. .  

PAST THE POST

By failing to win her last three races -- in all of which she was the public fancy -- Adjudicate has disappointed her legion of fans. Two of those races were at Pune and it is possible that the filly doesn't like the track. Horses, too, do have their preferences. It could also be that she has gone off the boil. That astute trainer R.R. Byramji always maintained that fillies were apt to suddenly go over the top. It must, however, be mentioned that her trainer's mother, Lady Jane Cecil, was in India at the time of Adjudicate's high noon. Lady Cecil was solely responsible for Frankel in the latter half of his career when her husband, the legendary Sir Cecil, was in the terminal stages of cancer and she is a trainer of much experience and standing in her own right. Could it be that her benevolent eye contributed to Adjudicate reaching the peak during her stay in India ?