Unlucky Gordon runner-up Excess Knowledge and dual classic-placed Galileo
Rock are the 10-3 joint-favorites with sponsor Ladbrokes for Saturday’s Group 1
St Leger at Doncaster after a final field of 11 was declared Thursday morning
for the world’s oldest classic.
But Galileo Rock’s participation hinges on improving ground conditions, and
trainer David Wachman issued a cautionary bulletin after the going was no better
than good-to-soft on Thursday.
“Galileo Rock will be declared for the Irish St Leger, which is run on Sunday
at the Curragh, and a decision on which race to go for will be delayed until
tomorrow evening,” Wachman revealed of the consistent colt, who was third in the
Epsom Derby and runner-up in the Irish Derby last out.
“I want very much to run Galileo Rock in the St Leger at Doncaster because of
its prestige, prize money and the fact it is confined to three-year-olds.”
Clerk of the Course Roderick Duncan reported that further rain is expected.
“There is a 90 percent chance that we’ll get between 3 millimeters and 7
millimeters of rain this evening,” he said Thursday, “and we’ll look again at 6
a.m. tomorrow morning to see if it has eased the ground at all.
“There is an outside chance of some more drizzle tomorrow (Friday), but
there’s not a great deal forecast and the outlook for Saturday is much better as
it’s due to stay dry with bright sunshine all day.”
The ease in the ground has made Oaks heroine Talent more popular with
bettors, and Ladbrokes has trimmed the filly’s price from 12-1 to 10-1.
“The anticipated support for Talent arrived with the rain at Doncaster, and
there’s every reason for thinking her price could contract even further,” the
firm’s spokesman David Williams said.
“If we get any more rain on Town Moor, she looks certain to start a
single-figure price.”
Feel Like Dancing, Eye of the Storm and London Bridge have been taken out of
the race which means that William Buick, who has previously won the race on
Masked Marvel (2011) and Arctic Cosmos (2010), is free to continue his
partnership with Derby runner-up Libertarian (8-1), who was bought after the
Epsom classic by Godolphin.
Godolphin also runs Gordon winner Cap O’Rushes (20-1) as well as Secret
Number (16-1).
Aidan O’Brien runs two horses in the extended one mile, six-furlong event as
he aims to land his fourth St Leger, having won the race in the past with Milan
(2001), Brian Boru (2003) and Scorpion (2005). Queen’s Vase winner Leading Light
(4-1 from 5-1) will be ridden by Joseph O’Brien while Great Voltigeur runner-up
Foundry (5-1) will be ridden by Ryan Moore.
Great Hall (25-1), Havana Beat (33-1) and Ralston Road (100-1) make up the
11-strong field.
Saturday’s 237th running of the St Leger is also the richest in the race’s
history, with prize money of £600,000, and this year’s contenders will try to
etch their names in its annals.
Talent would be the 42nd filly to win the St Leger. The first of the 41 to
have done so was the race’s first winner Allabaculia (who was unnamed at the
time of her victory), and the most recent was User Friendly in 1992.
Talent would be the 19th winner of the Oaks to win the St Leger, and the
first since User Friendly. Queen of Trumps (1835) was the first to turn the
Oaks/Leger double.
Since User Friendly won the St Leger, 15 fillies have taken part, of
whom seven have finished in the top four. They include three Oaks winners:
Ramruma (second in 1999), Look Here (third in 2008) and Snow Fairy (fourth in
2010). The other fillies to have cracked the top four since 1992 are Book at
Bedtime (fourth in 1997), High and Low (second in 1998), Quiff (second in 2004)
and Unsung Heroine (second in 2008).
Secret Number would be a sixth victory for Saeed bin Suroor, which would make
him joint-second on the trainers’ all-time St Leger leaderboard. The
19th century figure John Scott is outstandingly the best with 16 victories
between 1827 and 1862, followed by Mat Dawson, John Porter, Cecil Boyd-Rochfort
and Dick Hern with six each.
Either Secret Number or the Charlie Appleby-trained duo of Cap O’Rushes or Libertarian would
be a seventh victory for Godolphin, which would make Sheikh Mohammed’s
operation jointly the most successful in the St Leger. The 9th Duke of Hamilton
won seven between 1786 and 1814; Godolphin’s six have been Classic Cliche
(1995), Nedawi (1998), Mutafaweq (1999), Rule of Law (2004), Mastery (2009) (all
trained by bin Suroor) and Encke last year (Mahmood al Zarooni).
Excess Knowledge would be a fourth victory in seven runnings (and a fifth in
all) for trainer John Gosden, successful with Lucarno (2007), Arctic Cosmos
(2010) and Masked Marvel (2011), and earlier Shantou (1996).
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