🏇 Doncaster St Leger: The Full Report

How’s it going?

Thanks for the feedback from last week’s poll 🙏

We’ve read the comments, made notes, had a think – enjoyed a biscuit or three – rolled up our sleeves, and made a few tweaks to this week’s edition.

Enjoy.

👉 The St Leger headlines at Doncaster on Saturday – the final Classic of the Flat season. 

👉 The Leger’s ‘big three’ are Christmas Day, Enceladus, and Pierre Bonnard. 

👉 Sunday is the final day of the four-day St Leger Festival.

👉 The two-day Irish Champions Festival is at Leopardstown and the Curragh on Saturday and Sunday. 

👉 The Irish St Leger takes place on Sunday – Scandinavia is favourite.

👉 Ireland’s big clashes include: Blue Bolt vs Precise, Constitution River vs Item, Sun Goddess vs Green Empress, Monogram vs Giant Sequoia.   

👉 Yarmouth’s three-day Eastern Festival starts on Tuesday. 

👉 Ayr’s three-day Western Meeting gets underway on Thursday. 

👉 Najidi Storm was Britain’s shortest-priced loser at Goodwood on Tuesday when runner-up at 1/33. We hope none of you backed it.

This is where hours of blood, sweat, and tears arrive in your inbox 🏋️

We’ve chosen only the best – and we mean the very best – edges for Saturday’s racing. Plenty missed the cut, spare a thought for them 🪓

Most of these well-researched edges are simple to follow, others more in-depth, but fear not, as we’ve made it easy in listing all the runners/race times to save you searching 🤝

✅ +£36 Profit - DONCASTER

ℹ️ Haggas’s runners on St Leger day at Doncaster produced 3 wins & 1 place from 7 runs for a +£36 profit to a £1 stake (last five years).

Saturday’s runners:

✅ +£16 Profit - DONCASTER

ℹ️ Ryan’s rides on St Leger day at Doncaster produced 3 wins & 5 places from 15 runs for a +£16 profit to a £1 stake (last five years).

Saturday’s runners:

✅ +£25 Profit - CHESTER

ℹ️ Balding’s runners on the Saturday of Chester’s early-September meeting produced 6 wins & 3 places from 18 runs for a +£25 profit to a £1 stake (last five years).

Saturday’s runners:

✅ +£23 Profit - YORK OR THIRSK LAST TIME OUT

ℹ️ Runners from Thirsk or York last time out on the Saturday of Musselburgh’s early-September meeting produced 7 wins & 3 places from 18 runs for a +£23 profit to a £1 stake (last five years).

Saturday’s runners:

✅ +£25 Profit - MUSSELBURGH

ℹ️ Goldie’s runners on the Saturday of Musselburgh’s early-September meeting produced 6 wins & 3 places from 18 runs for a +£25 profit to a £1 stake (last five years).

Saturday’s runners:

✅ +£50 PROFIT - BATH

ℹ️ Carroll’s Bath runners that were beaten a head up to 5L last time out produced 16 wins & 6 places from 38 runs for a +£51 profit to a £1 stake (last two years).

Saturday’s runners:

✅ +£65 PROFIT - SOVEREIGN PATH HANDICAP

ℹ️ 3-5yos that ran during the last 11-25 days and won 1-2 races over 7f while ridden by a non-apprentice jockey produced 8 wins & 6 places from 35 runs for a +£65 profit to a £1 stake (last ten years).

Race qualifiers:

While researching Saturday’s stats, we came across more edges and angles than a mathematician's geometry set, so we decided on using them in a Placepot for Doncaster.

1.10: Rossa Ryan does well at this meeting and rides Game Character, who can build on his debut 5th of 14 from York last month.

1.45: Favourites have a lousy record in the Champagne Stakes, so we’ll leave the market leader alone and go with Gentle Hurricane and Sergei Diaghilev to keep the solid run going of second and third favourites.

2.20: Jim Goldie usually goes close in the Portland and his Eternal Sunshine is the first suggestion, along with – tongue-twister time – Rossa Ryan’s ride on Rosario. If high stalls come out well, then I’m Next will enjoy the drying ground and is thrown in at big odds.

2.55: William Haggas is our trainer to follow on St Leger day so More Thunder is the simple choice dropping back to a Group 2 race. Hopefully, all eight runners stand their ground for a top-three place. 

3.35: With the last five St Leger favourites all making the frame, we’re marking the ‘unnamed favourite’ on our betting slip.

4.15: It’s back to William Haggas in the final leg, who runs both Bullet Point and Scoville.

Perm: 1 x 2 x 3 x 1 x 1 x 2 = 12 lines.

Featuring the latest big-race roll of honour alongside ten-year trends analysis, our ‘Super Trends’ reveal the key stats for all the big races.

Use these trends to find your own selections, or if you’re short of time and can’t access a formbook, check our short-list of selections below each race.

Who fits the trends?

🏅 King Of Light
🏅 Dubai Bling

Who fits the trends?

🏅 Enceladus

Who fits the trends?

🏅 Blue Courvoisier
🏅 Moonfall

Our resident racing guru is being outrageous this week in providing a mammoth four selections, instead of his usual three. For him, it’s the equivalent of trying something different from an Indian takeaway instead of his usual chicken tikka masala.

Here’s who The Purist is backing on Saturday…

Chester 2.05 Cranachan

An impressive winner over course and distance when trying 2m for the first time last month. Upped in the weights for that, but has more to come, and attempts the same Chester double that Spirit Mixer achieved in returning to win this race in 2024.

Doncaster 2.20 Rosario

Obviously a tough 22-runner sprint handicap to crack, but odds of around 10/1 are worth taking for Rosario, who was third in last year’s race when drawn away from the main group. He arrives in winning form yet is 3lb lower in the weights than 12 months ago.

Musselburgh 5.20 Needin U

A stall position up against the stands’ rail in sprints can help at Musselburgh, and Needin U has bagged a slot right next to the rail. This two-year-old ran away with a similar course-and-distance race 18 days ago, and Billy Garritty is on board again in seeking the double. 

Leopardstown 5.35 Night Moon

It’s not often a Willie Mullins-trained Flat runner in a handicap can be backed at around the 12/1 mark, but Night Moon presents an opportunity. This hurdler didn’t get home over 2m/2m1f on four occasions for Mullins before the drop back to 1m6f at Fairyhouse in June saw him piss up by over 7L. He then ran in a valuable 18-runner handicap over 1m4f at the Galway Festival 43 days ago and did well to finish third from stall 14 as those around him came from stalls 8, 7, 2, 6, 5, 9 – two runners that finished behind him from similar tricky stalls in 13 & 15 won since. He hasn’t been hiked up in the weights for that, and this 1m5f trip looks ideal.

You may recall we mentioned Boston Dan as one that could pop up at a price, and so he did when scoring at 14/1 last Friday – six runs too late! (No, we didn’t back him) 🤦

Creative Queen (3yo)

In sixth behind Boston Dan was Creative Queen, who marked herself down as one to follow this autumn in the wet stuff. She never got a clear run on this occasion tackling heavy ground, and a glance back to when she got off the mark at Yarmouth in May shows the ground was soft (beaten four times since on good to firm). 

Keep her onside when the mud really flies – hopefully, not in six runs’ time!

📌 We couldn’t go without mentioning May Encounter who runs at Bath on Saturday (4.20). Her form figures this season are 55640, but she’s run much better than her finishing position the last twice since fitted with a hood. With better luck, she’s capable of cashing in on a falling handicap mark.

► ITV: Doncaster: 1.45, 2.20, 2.55, 3.35. 4.15; Chester: 1.30, 2.05.  

That’s a wrap for another week 🎞️

Next Saturday is the Ayr Gold Cup 🏆 – and The Purist’s ante-post fancy 😬

Until then…

…keep ‘em peeled 👀

The Paddock Report Team.

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