Where do Betfred St Leger winners usually come from ahead of final Classic of 2023 Flat season?
Ben Linfoot looks into the traditional routes to St Leger glory ahead of the Aidan O’Brien and John Gosden-dominated 2023 renewal at Doncaster on Saturday.
Voltigeur stands out amongst Leger trials
First run in 1776, Doncaster’s Betfred St Leger proudly markets itself as the world’s oldest Classic and given its long history the modern routes to the race came much later on.
The oldest recognised trial is the Group 3 Gordon Stakes at Goodwood, a race that was established in 1902, with nine horses having won both races - although none since Conduit in 2008.
The best Leger trial over the years has been the Sky Bet Great Voltigeur Stakes at York, a contest established in 1950. A total of 14 horses have won both races with Logician the latest to do the double in 2019. Nine Leger winners have come from the Voltigeur this century.
That leaves plenty of St Leger winners that have come from here, there and everywhere. The last two Doncaster winners have come directly from the Grand Prix de Paris – a race that a few Aidan O’Brien-trained St Leger heroes have taken in over the years – while three years ago Galileo Chrome graduated to Leger glory via a Listed race at Navan. The Lillie Langtry and Coral-Eclipse have provided recent Leger winners, as well.
Only one horse has won both the Geoffrey Freer Stakes and St Leger (in the same year) and that was the inaugural Newbury winner Ridge Wood in 1949, while only Masked Marvel, in 2011, has won both the Bahrain Trophy and St Leger since it became a Listed race in 1990.
And though the St Leger talent pool is spread thinly this Saturday with only four trainers - or training teams - represented, plenty of the protagonists are going into the race after taking familiar routes for handlers who know a thing or two about winning the season's final Classic.
St Leger winners this century by last time out race
- Great Voltigeur at York (9)
- Gordon Stakes at Goodwood (4)
- Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp (3)
- Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket (2)
- Coral-Eclipse at Sandown (1)
- Irish Derby at the Curragh (1)
- Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot (1)
- Lillie Langtry at Goodwood (1)
- Listed Yeats Stakes at Navan (1)
What’s a typical Ballydoyle Leger horse?
Aidan O’Brien has won six St Legers and all of his Doncaster winners had slightly different campaigns, although there are some commonalities between them.
Five of the six ran in a Derby; either Epsom, the Irish or the French, while three of the six finished their preparation for the Leger in the Great Voltigeur at York.
Three of them ran at Royal Ascot – two Queen’s Vase winners and a King Edward VII fourth – and two of them won the Grand Prix de Paris.
Adelaide River was O’Brien’s main Grand Prix de Paris horse this year, finishing second to Feed The Flame, but he’s not Leger-bound after winning at the Irish Champions Festival, leaving in four from Ballydoyle at the five-day stage.
Continuous is by far and away O’Brien’s best Leger contender this year, being a very convincing three-and-three-quarter length winner of the Voltigeur on his latest start, the son of Heart’s Cry taking the ‘Milan route’ to Town Moor.
Milan was fifth in the Prix du Jockey Club back in 2001, when the Chantilly race was still run over 1m4f, before he finished fourth in the King Edward VII and then won the Voltigeur. Continuous was eighth in France, but improved on that when chasing home King Of Steel at Royal Ascot before his Knavesmire romp.
Tower Of London was second in the Bahrain Trophy on his last start and none of O’Brien’s previous six Leger winners had run in that race. John Gosden's Masked Marvel and Laura Mongan's Harbour Law were the two Leger winners to run in the Bahrain Trophy this century.
The Newmarket race is at least a Group race with some Leger pedigree, though, and Alexandroupolis (sixth in a Leopardstown Listed race last time) and Denmark (third in a Haydock handicap) would be more unusual Leger winners for O’Brien.
What are Gosden’s Leger habits?
John Gosden is only one Leger winner behind O’Brien with five and he has three of the nine runners in at the five-day stage this year with all of the trio towards the top of the betting.
Two of Gosden’s five Leger winners won the Great Voltigeur at York on their final start before Doncaster – Lucarno in 2007 and Logician in 2019 – and while Continuous won the York race for O’Brien this year there are reasons to believe Gosden’s Gregory can reverse the form.
Sent off 8/11 on the Knavesmire, he carried a Group Two penalty thanks to his Queen’s Vase win and he looked disadvantaged by dropping in trip to 1m4f on a quick track like York.
The way he stayed on again late in proceedings bodes well for Doncaster, although it could be Gosden has a more typical Clarehaven St Leger horse in his weaponry.
Three of Gosdens five St Leger winners ran in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, with his first Doncaster winner, Shantou in 1996, finishing third in the Ascot race, while both Lucarno and Arctic Cosmos finished second.
That bodes well for Arrest, fifth in this year’s renewal of the King Edward VII having been sent off 3/1. He disappointed on the faster ground and couldn’t lay a glove on King Of Steel, but he’s since bounced back in the Geoffrey Freer and the rain early in the week at Doncaster looks very much in his favour.
Middle Earth is the third Gosden hopeful, supplemented for the Leger on the back of an impressive victory in the Sky Bet Melrose Stakes at the Ebor Festival.
Unsurprisingly, given the relative proximity of that handicap to the Group One, the Melrose is an unusual route to the Leger. Six horses have tried to win at Doncaster having run in the York race this century, with John Dunlop’s Tawqeet faring best when third behind Scorpion in 2005 (having won the Melrose by four lengths off a mark of 88).
Gordon a good guide to the final Classic
With O’Brien and Gosden-trained horses accounting for seven of the nine possible Leger runners, that just leaves William Haggas’ Desert Hero, owned by the King and Queen, and Simon & Ed Crisford’s Chesspiece, owned by Godolphin, to complete the field.
The pair finished first and second in the John Pearce Racing Gordon Stakes at Goodwood on August 3, only a neck separating the duo at the line in a thrilling finish to the Group 3 contest (watch free video replay, below).
Desert Hero is understandably the better fancied of the pair given his fast-finishing effort over the 1m4f distance at Goodwood. His dam was an unraced sister to 1m6f Group 2 winner Dartmouth, who also sported the Royal colours, and he has untapped potential over another two furlongs.
He’ll bid to become the 10th horse to do the Gordon-St Leger double and the fourth this century, with Millenary, Sixties Icon (won the Leger at York) and Conduit having already achieved the feat.
Arctic Cosmos, mentioned previously in the Gosden section, was the last horse beaten in the Gordon Stakes (he was third) to win the Leger.
Saturday’s St Leger runners by last time out race
- Alexandroupolis 6th – Listed Vinnie Roe Stakes, Leopardstown
- Arrest 1st – Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes, Newbury
- Chesspiece 2nd – Group 3 Gordon Stakes, Goodwood
- Continuous 1st – Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes, York
- Denmark 3rd – Betfair Handicap, Haydock
- Desert Hero 1st – Group 3 Gordon Stakes, Goodwood
- Gregory 3rd – Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes, York
- Middle Earth 1st - Sky Bet Melrose Handicap, York
- Tower Of London 2nd – Group 3 Bahrain Trophy, Newmarket
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