St Leger

The St Leger winner Continuous (Jpn), a son of the late Shadai stallion Heart's Cry (Jpn), is set to return to the land of his birth to take on Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) in the Japan Cup on November 26. Fifth in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe after his Classic success, the colt missed Saturday's Champion S. with a raised temperature. "But he's back fine, he's back cantering again, so the plan with him is to go to the Japan Cup," said trainer Aidan O'Brien on Racing TV. ...

The Corinthian quest is finding life tough. These days romance is run off its legs by finance. Victory for Continuous in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, though, 15 days after his St Leger win, would make history of the most reassuring kind. Each week frontiers in sport are crossed: stats shredded, records set, barriers smashed. With every new 'first' the surviving 'nevers' gain mystique. Racing still has a few. No horse has won the St Leger and the Arc in the same season. It was hard enough already with...

With a royal audience, Continuous (Jpn) became the seventh winner of the St Leger for Aidan O'Brien, relegating the King and Queen's runner Desert Hero (GB) to third, just as Pour Moi (Ire) had done in the Derby with Carlton House back in 2011 in front of the late Queen. There were plenty of strands to an enthralling St Leger that would have made for good storylines: two of those, victory for Desert Hero with his owners present on Town Moor, or a final British Classic for Frankie Dettori, may...

In 2017 and 2018, Aidan O'Brien won both the St Leger and Irish St Leger, first with Capri (Ire) and Order Of St George (Ire), and the following year with Kew Gardens (Ire) and Flag Of Honour (Ire). Given the dominance of both the trainer and his not-so-secret weapon Galileo (Ire), it has perhaps passed beyond being remarkable that all four of those horses are by the late former champion sire, but it is worth noting nonetheless. This year, William Haggas will attempt to pull off that same staying Classic...

It's the time of year which most trainers must dread as they juggle spending time in their yards and at the races with attending yearling sales here, there and everywhere. One who will doubtless be patrolling the sales grounds of Doncaster and Baden-Baden this week with an extra pep in his step is Ralph Beckett. Marc Chan, one of Beckett's principal owners, had four runners in the past week and all four won. Even more remarkably, three of those victories came in stakes contests on the same day at three...

A selection of correspondence in response to Emma Berry's Op/Ed 'Long May The Leger Run': I read your article about the St Leger in the TDN with interest and I agree totally that it would be a great loss to British racing to see the Leger distance changed. When I started training I had horses for Lord Weinstock and Dick Hollingsworth, who only bred middle-distance horses, and I really enjoyed being able to allow their horses the time to develop and mature; they also improved significantly from two to three,...

While conducting a long overdue tidy-up of my office I came across a copy of the brilliant Pacemaker International magazine of June 1980. (For the avoidance of doubt, it had not been on my desk all that time.) There were some throwbacks, such as an advert for Leslie Combs II's draft of yearlings from Spendthrift, and another for Rover cars (imagine that in a racing publication nowadays!), as well as items that served as a reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same. To this effect,...

The St Leger meeting at Doncaster has been switched to Sunday, Sept. 11, with all racing on Saturday, Sept. 10, being cancelled as British racing remains in mourning following the death of Her Majesty, The Queen. As an ongoing mark of respect the BHA has determined that, alongside the cancellation of fixtures on Sept. 8-9, all racing will also be cancelled tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 10. Scheduled fixtures and racing events will return on Sunday, Sept. 11. An additional day of racing at Doncaster will also be scheduled for Sunday, Sept....

It may be the least lauded of all the British festivals, but Doncaster's St Leger meeting is arguably the most varied with its cherished feature race still held in the highest regard by its many ardent fans. While Town Moor hosted day one of the festival on Wednesday, the relatively low-key action served mainly as a prologue or appetizer to the major upcoming events. Perhaps this week's jewels are the 2-year-old races, which lean more towards next year's Classics than those at Ascot, Newmarket, Goodwood and York and one of...

An exciting career awaits in Australia but, before Derby runner-up Hoo Ya Mal (GB) (Territories {Ire}) joins Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott down under, he will be prepared by George Boughey for an ambitious tilt at the St Leger at Doncaster.  Trained by Andrew Balding to split Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) and Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}) at Epsom, Hoo Ya Mal was subsequently snapped up by his new connections for a whopping £1.2million at the Goffs London Sale.  While races like the Melbourne Cup are what Hoo Ya Mal...

Many open questions surrounding some of Europe's best will be answered in the space of less than an hour on Saturday, with Leopardstown's G1 Irish Champion S. and Doncaster's G1 Cazoo St Leger condensed in the middle of an absorbing spell of action. There will barely be time to reflect on the promise of the winner of the G2 KPMG Champions Juvenile S. that forms part of Irish Champions weekend before the focus is switched to Town Moor for its own glimpse of futurity in the G2 Champagne S. In...

Friday at Doncaster's St Leger festival means Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), and after John and Thady Gosden and Frankie Dettori's Group 2 double and a treble overall on Thursday the tide is rising for the esteemed combo as the G2 Doncaster Cup looms. Bjorn Nielsen's golden boy of the staying scene since 2018 needs no introduction and this special week on Town Moor is there for turf's icons such as him to enjoy widespread adulation. If there were any doubts as to the appetite of the 7-year-old, those...