Adjudicate clinches Indian St Leger race

This picture has been used for representation purpose only

The James E McKeown-trained Adjudicate proved too good for her rivals in the grade 1, Indian St Leger, the final Classic of the 2018-19 racing season, which was slated as the prime attraction of the Sunday card. Over the grueling trip of 2800m the dark bay four-year-old filly (by Multidimensional out of Alvarita) resumed her winning ways in style, beating her two-time conqueror Bushtops (N S Parmar up) by over a dozen lengths as the latter finished last of four runners in a race that was run in 3 minutes 7.94 seconds. The last grade 1 race she had won was the Indian Turf Invitation Cup at Hyderabad in March this year.

The winner was bred at the Usha stud of Ms Ameeta Mehra and raced in the silks of Mrs D Khaitan who owns her in partnership with Mrs D Jalan and Diwan Arun Nanda's family. Adjudicate rewarded her trainer James McKeown who continued to have faith in her despite two humiliating defeats--in the Eve Champion Trophy and the Idar Gold Cup--at the hands of the M K Jadhav-trained Bushtops on the same Pune track.

This was Adjudicate's seventh victory from 15 starts, and it is a tribute to her consistency that she always finished in the money (1-2-3) in all the outings. With the St Leger victory, the star filly took her career earnings figure to Rs 2.63 crore.

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