When the bay filly Fynbos stepped out on the tracks at Pune on Sunday, her obvious aim was to triumph in the Indian St. Leger (Gr.1) and erase the bitter memory of the defeat she suffered at the hands of Duke of Tuscany about a month ago. Of course that did not happen. Fynbos from Pesi Shroff’s yard was once again overshadowed by a horse which ran in the same colours as hers and was saddled by her master. It was Red Bishop who triumphed against the run of expectations on this occasion.

Matisse set the early pace as the field of seven embarked on the mile and three quarters journey and led for about a mile before passing on the baton to Arrived. Meanwhile, both Kings Gambit and Fynbos improved their positions to race alongside Arrived. As Kings Gambit failed to raise a fluent gallop and seemed to have done her bit even before turning for home, jockey Vivek G. hustled Fynbos to take charge from Arrived. It appeared that Fynbos was about to assert her superiority when she entered the home stretch. However, the grim reality that her fight for survival had just begun dawned as Vivek removed his whip at the two-furlong marker, as if reminding Fynbos to stay the course. Fynbos, under Vivek's desperate effort, fought gallantly until Neeraj Rawal astride Red Bishop sensed an unexpected opportunity to tame Fynbos. Red Bishop (Kingda Ka – Solar Midnight) lengthened his stride as Neeraj went for the kill, putting an end to Fynbos’s invincibility in the shadow of the winning post. The rest of the field finished in a procession led by the third-placed Arrived, while Caccini trailed a distance behind to be fourth.

For the record, Red Bishop was Shroff’s 100th classic winner, a feat rarely achieved in the Indian horse-racing circuit. But the unexpected outcome of the Leger had clearly dampened Shroff’s spirit. He had attained a new milestone of his career, yet the elation of that achievement was missing as he walked across the paddock and later on to the podium for the presentation ceremony. When the owners walked on to the racetrack to lead Red Bishop, they trudged back wearily and their sense of jubilation was wiped out by anger expressed by the racing public.

While they recovered from the shock of Fynbos’s loss, the spectators were searching for a plausible cause for her failure. The usual post-mortems began. Questions were asked whether Vivek had made his move on Fynbos a bit early, which led to her downfall. Numerous excuses, various opinions, conspiracy theories also cropped up from the post-mortems but there was no definite or credible reason in sight for Fynbos’s defeat. Even those with a fickle mind had a field day speculating, among other things, that Red Bishop’s victory was designed and that it may have been a coup of sorts. Nevertheless, the stance of jockey Vivek when driving out Fynbos in the home stretch and at the same time peeping over his shoulder to check the danger lurking behind was probably an indication that the filly was running out of fuel. Unexpected as the result was, Red Bishop still deserves credit for turning up a fabulous winning performance and so does Neeraj for steering the Leger winner with determination.
 
All said and done, it was a sad ending for the Indian St. Leger event, the final Indian classic of the season.