Red Bishop outfinishes Fynbos to win Indian St. Leger in Pune

Red Bishop, ridden by Neeraj Rawal, overtook stablemate Fynbos to win the Indian St. Leger (Gr. 1) at Pune on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. The 15 to 1 outsider prevailed at the wire to take the feature race on the day.

The winner is owned by Mr. K.N. Dhunjibhoy, Mr. Z.K. Dhunjibhoy & Ms. Anosha Meyers rep. Five Stars Shipping Co. Pvt. Ltd., Ms. Anita J. Captain, Mr. & Mrs. D.P. Adenwalla, Mr. A.S. Narielwala, Mr. Vispi R. Patel & Mr. James O’ Donnell & Mr. Abhilash Puljal rep. Kingsmoor World India Pvt. Ltd., and is trained by Pesi Shroff. Shroff saddled two more winners on the card and this victory completed his 100th Classic success as a trainer. Red Bishop is a son of Kingda Ka-Solar Midnight and contested the Grade 1, 2,800m St. Leger.

Held at the rear by jockey Neeraj Rawal until the 1,000m mark, Red Bishop moved up to fourth as the runners neared the bend and then produced a late surge on entering the home straight. That sustained run carried him past the front-runners and allowed him to edge clear of his stablemate Fynbos by half a length.

In the Indian St. Leger (2,800m) the finishing order was Red Bishop (Kingda Ka - Solar Midnight) (Neeraj Rawal) 1, Fynbos (Kingda Ka - Mahali) (Vivek G) 2, Arrived (Deauville - Transformation) (P. Trevor) 3 and Caccini (Leitir Mor - Forever Glory) (A. Sandesh) 4. The margins were 1/2, 5-1/5 and 11-1/2 with a time of 2m 56.46s. The winning return was ₹102 (w), 36 and 12 (p); SHP: 47, FP: 342, Q: 47, Tanala: 681 and 486. The pre-race favourite for the event was Fynbos.

Elsewhere on the Pune card, Howlin Wolf (N.S. Parmar) won the Janardhan Salver (1,000m); owners Mr. Prashant Nagar rep. SKJ Thoroughbreds Pvt. Ltd. and trainer M.K. Jadhav were recorded for that victory. Rosario (S. Siddharth) took the S.S. Shah Salver (1,600m) for owners Mr. & Mrs. Vijay B. Shirke & Mr. Jay V. Shirke and trainer P. Shroff.

Other winners on the card included Gold Bar (Ramswarup) in the B.K. Lagad Salver (Div. II, 1,200m), Bishop (Vivek G) in the Shamu Chavan Salver (1,400m) trained by P. Shroff, Funny Bunny (Antony Raj S) in the Uttam Singh Trophy (1,800m) and Pure Soul (P. Trevor) in the S.K. Sunderji Salver (1,400m). Rizz (A. Sandesh) won B.K. Lagad Salver (Div. I, 1,200m) and Golden Heart (Saurav Rawat) prevailed in the Nana Raghunath Salver (1,400m).

Queen Caroline was noted as having planted into the stalls and did not participate in the B.K. Lagad Salver (Div. II). The published tote and jackpot details for the meeting included a Super Jackpot 70%: 25,582 (1 tkt), 30%: 1,096 (10 tkts.), and Treble payouts listed as (i) 139 (144 tkts.), (ii) 700 (28 tkts.), (iii) 2,158 (13 tkts.).