St. Leger meeting starts today at Doncaster

The four day St. Leger meeting at Doncaster starts today, with the highlight of course the St. Leger itself, the oldest and final classic, on Saturday. Today´s card is the weakest of the four days, but still offers some interesting betting opportunities. It opens with a handicap for 2yo´s over 7 furlongs at 15.00 CET. Richard Hannon continues in tremendous form with his juveniles and saddles the two top-weights here Wolfgang (Kieren O´Neill) and Magic City (Richard Hughes). It can be assumed that the latter, who has been running in some hot races, has the better chance. Hannon and Hughes also team up with with Eureka in the following race, a conditions event for 3yo´s over 6 furlongs. Eureka has a clear chance, but even with only 5 runners, this is a very tricky race and we prefer Gold City (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori), just beaten at Ripon last week.

The listed Scarborough Stakes for 2yo´s and up over 5 furlongs at 16.10 is the main event and looks very competitive with 12 runners, 4 of whom met in a similar race at Beverley 11 days ago, where Duchess Dora (John Quinn/ Paul Beggy) finished second, Dinkum Diamond (Henry Candy/ Dane O´Neill) third, Captain Dunne (David Allan) 4th and Breathless Kiss (Kevin Ryan/ Phillip Makin) 5th. They could all be involved again, especially Dinkum Diamond, but possibly Hughes could have another winner with the consistent Medicean Man.

The mile race at 16.45 is for ex-jockeys and veterans and as the name suggests, some of those taking part are indeed "legends", notably Julie Krone, the most successful lady jockey of all time. She rides Declan Carroll´s Invincible Hero, who has won 2 of his last 3 races and looks capable of further improvement. Charlie Swan won this last year, and now partners Ed de Giles´ Skyfire, while Gay Kelleway, trainer and rider of Conducting, should also be included in your bet. Basically this is a fun race, and fitness of the jockey will decide the result.

There is also flat racing at Carlisle this afternoon and on the all-weather at Kempton this evening, but we find the jumps racing at Uttoxeter more interesting. There are several German-breds running here, and we hope to see the Lando gelding Kristallo (Peter Bowen/ Jamie Moore) run well at 16.30, also the well-bred Moon Melody (Mike Sowersby/ Edmond Lineham) at 17.05, and especially Geneva Geyser (Lady Herries/ Leighton Aspell), who has won his last 3 races and can continue his winning run in the handicap hurdle at 18.10.