After an absorbing weekend of top-quality races from around Europe including Galileo Chrome’s narrow win in the St Leger at 4/1, it’s time to take a look back at all the movers and shakers and assess what their plans for the future are?
Lucky Break
The old saying “one man’s misfortune is another man’s fortune” came to fruition this weekend, in the shape of the Doncaster St Leger.
Tom Marquand rode 4-1 shot Galileo Chrome to victory (see video below), picking up the mount after regular jockey, Shane Crosse, tested positive for Covid-19.
Marquand described himself as a “lucky, lucky boy,” after recording his first Classic win in the oldest of them all – the 244th running to be exact!
Meanwhile on the same Doncaster card…
Silvestre De Sousa and Andrew Balding combined to land the Portland Handicap with Stone Of Destiny (16/1).
Wichita (11/4 fav) was the narrow winner of the Group 2 Park Stakes under Frankie Dettori. Wichita was cut to 10-1 (from 25) by most online bookmakers for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Prix de la Foret & Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Chindit (15/8) took the Group 2 Champagne Stakes, gaining an 8-1 from 12-1 quote for next year’s 2000 Guineas with some bookies although 12/1 is still available at 888sport at the time of writing.
Leopardstown Pointers
There was also a plethora of Group races held at Leopardstown last Saturday with the cream rising to the top in many of them.
- Johnny Murtagh recorded the biggest success of his training career when Champers Elysees (9/2) took top honours in the Matron Stakes.
- Cadillac (11/8 fav) was driven home by Shane Foley to comfortably take the Champions Juvenile Stakes.
- Magical (9/2) was just that when she served it up to Ghaiyyath in the Irish Champion Stakes, earning an 8/1 quote for the Arc at Longchamp in October.
- Safe Voyage (4/1) battled doggedly to gain the verdict and yet another Group success in the Boomerang Mile.
- Tiger Moth’s (5/6 fav) penalty Group 3 win in Ireland has cemented his place in the 2020 Melbourne Cup for which he is now best odds of 16/1 chance with Unibet if taking up the option.
Sunday Service
If you thought Saturday’s fare was impressive, then we were well at truly blessed on Sunday afternoon with the best equine action around taking place at the Curragh, ParisLongchamp and Baden-Baden.
Every year, the Curragh’s Irish St Leger meeting never fails to deliver and the results were once again totally captivating.
English raider Mr Lupton (11/2 fav) got back to winning ways when he was victorious in the Bold Lad Sprint Handicap.
Jessica Harrington and Shane Foley were on the winner’s podium once again with Cayenne Pepper (3/1) in the Blandford Stakes.
Kevin Ryan’s Glass Slippers (9/2) landed her second Group One in the Flying Five Stakes and is now a 4-1 shot to win the Prix de l’Abbaye for a second time on Arc day.
Shale (9/2) was a nice winner of the Moyglare Stud Stakes. Donnacha O’Brien’s filly will now head to either the US for the Fillies’ Mile or France (for the Prix Marcel Boussac) next.
Joseph O’Brien’s Thunder Moon (15/2) was a 1½l scorer in the National Stakes and has now been quoted at 14/1 in the 2021 2000 Guineas betting.
The Irish St Leger went the way of Dermot Weld’s Search For A Song (7/1) on what turned out to be a Sunday afternoon to remember for the veteran Irish trainer.
Arc Trials Day
Over in the French capital, Arc Trials Day at Longchamp brought us plenty of pointers for the racing there in three weeks time, and of course beyond.
The key winners were:
- Prix du Petit Couvert (G3) – Air De Valse (61/10);
- Grand Prix de Paris (G1) – Mogul (17/2);
- Prix Vermeille (G1) – Tanarwa (56/10);
- Prix Foy (G2) – Anthony Van Dyck (19/5);
- Prix du Pin (G3) – Earthlight (9/10 fav).
Germany’s feature race of the weekend, the Group One Grosser Preis von Baden at Baden-Baden was won by the popular Barney Roy (4/1), for the Godolphin Stud, Charlie Appleby and James Doyle.
Ayr Brain Idea
Saturday 19th September sees the 2020 renewal of the Ayr Gold Cup and the recent Curragh scorer, Mr Lupton (see above), is clearly in good heart and he could represent some ante-post betting value at 12/1 with SportNation.
* Betting odds quoted were correct at the time of writing
