Horse Racing
Derby hero Christmas Day heads St Leger dozen
Derby hero Christmas Day head 12 confirmations for the 250th Betfred St Leger at Doncaster on Saturday.
Aidan O’Brien’s colt is a hot favourite to become the first horse since Reference Point in 1987 to win both the premier Classic at Epsom and the world’s oldest Classic on Town Moor.
The son of Camelot – who himself was memorably denied the Triple Crown by Encke in the 2012 St Leger – is set to be joined by several stablemates on Town Moor, with the Ballydoyle handler also leaving in Action, Piazza San Marco, Pierre Bonnard and the only filly in the potential field, Amelia Earhart.
The biggest threat to O’Brien’s hopes of winning the race for a 10th time could be his son Joseph, who has a couple of notable contenders in Enceladus and Highwayman, with the former particularly well fancied following his victories in the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot and Gordon Stakes at Goodwood.
The home team is headed by Andrew Balding’s Hatteen, who won the inaugural St Leger Trial at Doncaster earlier in the season, while the Kingsclere handler could also saddle Galiyan.
Alderman (Richard Hannon), Golden Story (Karl Burke) and Rebel Rocker (Faye Bramley) are the other contenders.
The going at Doncaster ahead of the four-day St Leger Festival, which gets under way on Thursday, was described as good to soft on Monday morning and clerk of the course David Attwood could not be happier with conditions.
He told Sky Sports Racing: “The rain came for us about seven or 10 days ago and the track has absolutely popped – it looks a million dollars. No now we just need to get everything ready to welcome the horses.
“We went out this morning and the ground is good to soft. We’re very happy at the moment.
“It depends which forecast you look at and which one you want to believe. It’s looking predominantly dry, 18 to 20C throughout the week. There may be the odd chance of a shower at some point.
“I would think if we stay mainly dry then good might come into the description when we start on Thursday. I can see us starting on the easy side of good for the start of the four days and we’re probably going to leave the watering cans in the shed this week!”
While Attwood is expecting a bumper crowd for St Leger day itself, tickets are still available.
“We’ve always aimed to have 30,000 people here on St Leger Saturday, that is still very much the aim for us and it’s looking like we’re going to achieve that,” he added.
“We’ve adapted the site to cater for 30,000 people – we’ve made enclosures bigger and we’ve enhanced the parade ring as well, so you’ll see a new winner’s enclosure and a new podium, so we can celebrate the Leger winner in style.
“Prestige, Premier and County are all sold out for Saturday. We’ve still got some limited hospitality and there are tickets available in Grandstand and Picnic.”
