Doncaster St.Leger meeting: day three

The standard of racing at the St. Leger meeting steps up a gear today with 3 Group Two races, headed by the Doncaster Cup over 2 1/4 miles at 15.20 CET. The two races to bear in mind here are the Ascot Gold Cup, won by Colour Vision (Saeed bin Suroor/ Silvestre de Sousa) with Saddlers Rock (John Oxx/ Johnny Murtagh) a close third and Askar Tau (Marcus Tregoning/ George Baker) fifth, and the Goodwood Cup with Saddlers Rock, Askar Tau and Colour Vision taking the first 3 places. Obviously there is not a great deal between them, and we expect the finish to lie between Colour Vision- who is penalised 4 lb s for his Ascot success, as he was at Goodwood - and Saddlers Rock, who also won this race last year, but ran badly last time at York behind Times Up and High Jinks. That could not have been his real form however and it may be wiser to ignore it. We would like to see Times Up do well, after his trainer John Dunlop yesterday announced his retirement after a long and distinguished career, and also Askat Tau (out of an Acatenango mare) and also of course Colour Vision (out of a Monsun mare), but at these weights Saddlers Rock appeals as the most likely winner.

The May Hill Stakes over a mile for 2yo fillies at 15.55 has some smart performers entered, the best of whom could be the two unbeaten fillies Certify (Mahmood al Zarooni/ Mikael Barzalona) and Ollie Olga (Mick Channon/ Martin Harley). Both won from Sky Lantern last time out, and the latter was a Group One winner in Ireland last Sunday, so the form looks strong and there is probably little between them.

The card opens with the Flying Childers Stakes for 2yo´s over 5 furlongs and features some of the fastest juveniles around. Sir Prancealot (Richard Hannon/ Murtagh) repreesents a stable whose 2yo´sd are flying and as he has run well in top company, he is our selection, although Hoyam (Michael Bell/ Jamie Spencer), another very consistent performer, could run him close.

The handicaps are as usual at these big meetings, very tough. However Sir Graham Wade (Mark Johnston/ Kieren Fallon), who ran into all sorts of difficulties last week at Haydock and still won, may be able to defy a 6 lbs penalty in the 1 3/4 miles handicap at 14.50, where Nanton (Jim Goldie/ Graham Lee), who won the race in 2009, was beaten a head last year, and is now very well handicapped, looks the main danger. Over 6 1/2 furlongs at 17.05 the two we like best are the lightly-weighted 3yo´s Duke of Firenze (Sir Michael Stoute/ Fallon) and Galician (Johnston/ Mirco Demuro)