The St Leger - a GREAT race with 200+ years of rich history - Updated

The St Leger, Doncaster - a GREAT race with 200+ years of rich, interesting history - Updated trainer, jockey & Winner & Place SP statistics

For me personally there is nothing in the horse racing calendar that matches being at Doncaster to enjoy St Leger day and of course the St Leger itself, all 1 mile 6 furlongs of it.

Now I don't know the exact figures involved but if I was to guess how many people would respond to the question - "Which is your favourite horse racing Classic of the flat season ? " then I'd say the St Leger would probably get a low percentage and be well behind the likes of the Derby, Oaks along with the 1000 and 2000 Guineas.

Those high quality, hugely important races in their own right do appear to get huge media coverage, have far greater respect and recognition amongst those in the racing industry and certainly do appear to have a much wider appeal to those that follow horse racing.

I respect that and I understand the importance of prestige and heritage of those races in terms of future breeding prospects but again I repeat that for me personally, the St Leger at Doncaster is the ultimate Classic and the very best of the lot.

I firmly believe that The St Leger at Doncaster is the best of the Classics as it's held at Doncaster which is a supremely fair, flat track with the St Leger culminating with a 4 furlong straight which means there can be no claims of hard luck or traffic issues, simply the best horse on the day wins the Leger and there is no doubt about the merits of the winner.

I also believe the fact the St Leger comes in mid September means all the horses have themselves had proper time to mature physically into their frames to make it a level playing field in terms of physical ability, whereas the fact the Guineas and Derby come very early in the season means some horses are more developed than others, quite simply some horses are just not developed enough to show their true talent.

Watching most of the finest staying 3 year olds at their matured best doing battle over the 1 mile 6 furlongs of Doncaster's fine, fair turf on St Leger day is my favourite race of the year at my favourite track, it's a proper Group 1, it's the oldest Classic and it's got a tremendously rich, interesting history.

So they are my own personal views on The St Leger at Doncaster and I'll stand by them, I've enjoyed so many fantastic St Leger days and I'm going to discuss my favourite St Leger's in another blog, but for now I've been looking at the history of the St Leger and here are the facts, figures and names of winners that I feel offer the most interest, it was first run in 1776 when ALLABACULIA took the honours so there are clearly a lot to choose from.

St Leger - Trainer & Jockey facts - 1776 to 1958

The most prolific trainer in St Leger history is John Scott who won the St Leger 16 times including three successive wins in 1827, 28 and 29 and his last St Leger win came in 1862, he's said to have been widely known as the "wizard of the north" and that's easy to understand given he'd also got 9 Oaks win and 6 Derby wins on his CV as trainer.

The other very interesting, indeed vital connection to John Scott was the fact he had his brother Bill Scott ride a lot of the winners for him including 4 successive St Legers in 1838, 39, 40 and 41.

Bill Scott is the most prolific St Leger jockey with 9 victories and clearly enjoyed an amazing partnership with his brother John.

John Jackson has an amazing record of 8 St Leger wins with the first coming in 1791 via Young Traveller and his last coming incredibly in 1822, 8 St Leger winners with 31 years between the first and last is unreal.

John Mangle is a fantastic name to start with and his St Leger record is far greater with 5 wins as trainer, he won it in 1780 with a horse called RULER and that was rather appropriate as he ruled the St Leger in many ways with 4 other wins in the great race including 3 in succession in 1786, 87 and 88, his last St Leger win came in 1792.

John Hutchison was also certainly a trainer with the Golden touch in the St Leger in the early 1790's as he won it 3 times in 1791, 94 and 95 including having the extra joy of being the owner in both 1791 and 95.

The next trainer to get my attention in the history books was John Lonsdale who won the race in four successive years from 1817 to 1820, with unquestionably the most famous and most important being EBOR in 1817, of course EBOR is a horse and name that has a big relevance today with the big meetings and races at York named after him, also the fact the Great Voltigeur held at the Ebor meeting is regarded as the most important St Leger trial.

The other relevance that John Lonsdale has today is via the naming of the Lonsdale Cup a very important 2 mile, Group 2 which is part of the British Champions Series.

Bob Johnson was the jockey on EBOR in 1817 and he won 4 St Legers in total between 1812 and 1820.

Imagine training 28 British Classic winners - well I know it was very difference scene back in the late 1890's but still the Classics were there to be won at the time and indeed Matthew Dawson won 28 including 6 Derby wins and 7 St Leger wins.

Dawson's first St Leger win came in 1877 and two other important St Leger winners he was involved in were Melton in 1885 and Sir Visto in 1895, they both also won the Derby.

Sandwiched in between Matthew Dawson's incredible record as trainer of St Leger winners, was an equally impressive record of John Porter who trained 5 Leger winners starting with the incredible, unbelievable ORMONDE in 1886 and the last one came in 1899 with Flying Fox.

ORMONDE is one of the most famous names in horse racing, indeed he's widely regarded as one of the finest and most important horses the sport has ever seen, an incredible Triple Crown winner in 1886 with wins in the 2000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger, along with wins in the Champion Stakes and St James Palace Stakes that year, just imagine the value of any racehorse who matched those achievements in today's world, truly remarkable to even think about it.

Fred Archer was the jockey on ORMONDE in 1886, he won 6 St Legers in total between 1877 and 1886 and incredibly those victories came in pairs with wins in 1877 and 1878, 1881 and 1882, then in 1885 and 1886.

Ben Smith rode 4 St Leger winners between 1803 to 1824.

The next multiple St Leger winning, high achieving trainer to stand out in the history books is Alec Taylor Jr who included 5 St Leger wins between 1909 and 1927 on his incredible cv along with another 16 Classic wins.

Alec Taylor Jr. has a really important relevance in today's horse racing scene and he and his family played a major part in the great Manton Stables, indeed Alec Taylor Jr. was well known at the time as the "wizard of Manton " and when you consider he instigated two successive Triple Crown bids in 1917 with Gay Crusader and 1918 with Gainsborough then it's easy to understand the name, he clearly was a wizard with horses.

Fred Darling is a name well known to those that follow horse racing today as the Fred Darling Stakes is an important Group 3 for fillies held at Newbury, he won the St Leger in 1942 with Sun Chariot and that name is now very well known via the hugely important Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes.

The superbly named Cecil Boyd-Rochfort who trained horses for King and Queen, recorded an incredible 6 St Leger wins with the first coming in 1936 and his last one coming in 1958 via the win of Alcide.

Looking through the records, the one Cecil Boyd-Rochfort St Leger winner that struck most importance with me in terms of the St Leger was 1953 winner PREMONITION who was sired by his 1937 Ascot Gold Cup winner Precipitation who actually sired 3 St Leger winners in total.

I must admit I did not have a clue about those incredible, hugely interesting historical facts about the St Leger trainers etc from that time period until I started reading the records, I'm now so glad I've done that and I really hope you get plenty from it too.

St Leger - Trainer Facts - 1960 to 2015

Now this is the historical period of the St Leger that I did know about, it's the history that means the most to me as I've been personally witnessing St Leger's live since around the age of 7 in 1984 and I'm 39 now, in that time I've probably only missed 5 St Legers, mainly due to the fact that my wedding anniversary falls around St Leger day, I should have planned that better!!!

The incredible, remarkable Dick Hern gets the headline opening act in this section as he trained an amazing 6 St Leger winners between 1962 and 1983 with the great BUSTINO in 1974 and DUNFERMLINE owned by the Queen in 1977 the absolute pick of Hern's 6 Leger winners.

Joe Mercer and Willie Carson were the main St Leger jockeys for Hern, Mercer won 3 St Leger's for Hern and 4 in total while Carson won two St Legers with Hern and 3 in total.

Vincent O'Brien regarded my many as the finest, most important trainer in horse racing history, won the St Leger 3 times and will always remain a key part of St Leger history after training the incredible NIJINKSKY to win the Triple Crown in 1970. NIJINKSKY was of course ridden by the equally incredible, all round brilliant jockey and St Leger sensation Lester Piggott who rode 8 St Leger winners with Nijinsky obviously the pick of them and back to back winners in 1967 and 68 with Ribocco and Ribero, both amazingly sired by the brilliant Ribot out of the Dam Libra.

According to my dad I was there at Doncaster when Lester Piggott won the St Leger for the last time in 1984 on Commanche Run, unfortunately I can't remember that but my dad said he was brilliant as always and that will do for me.

The first St Leger memories I have are of being there the day Sir Henry Cecil won it with the brilliant OH SO SHARP in 1985 who added the Classic to wins in the Nell Gwyn, 1000 Guineas and Oaks, being there the day one of the all time great fillies won the Fillies Triple Crown is something special to remember.

Sir Henry Cecil had 3 St Leger wins as part of his incredible record of achievement and sitting alongside him as modern day triple winning St Leger trainers are John Dunlop and Aidan O'Brien .

Aidan O'Brien's most impressive St Leger winner to date was last years winner LEADING LIGHT who was brilliant as a 3 year old and who has certainly stepped up on that this season dramatically winning the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup.

John Dunlop's St Leger winner in 1997 was SILVER PATRIARCH who had just been denied in that years Derby and who amazingly gave the legendary Pat Eddery his 4000th career win, to be there that day to witness that was truly amazing and one of my best memories in racing to date.

John Gosden and Saeed Bin Suroor have been the most successful, prolific St Leger trainers in the modern era with 4 and 5 wins respectively, Gosden first won it in 1995 with SHANTOU and Bin Suroor the following year with CLASSIC CLICHE.MASKED MARVEL was one of Gosden's recent St Leger winners and he set the modern day course record for the St Leger in 2011 in a time just fractions over 3 minutes.

SIXTIES ICON was the St Leger winner that Frankie Dettori rode for Jeremy Noseda in 2006 and that St Leger was different in the respect it was run at York as Doncaster went through redevelopment that year - I was there that day and York did the St Leger proud, it was a great days racing and Frankie put a huge smile on every punters face that day.

In 2014 KINGSTON HILL trained by Roger Varian was an incredibly popular St Leger winner after returning to win the famous Doncaster classic the year after winning the Racing Post Trophy at the same course, on the day punters put tremendous faith in him & he won it with a commanding, powerful surge in the final two furlongs.

2015 saw Ralph Beckett claim another Classic with his star filly SIMPLE VERSE just edging out Bondi Beach in a scintillating battle all the way to the line, that was a controversial win as after an initial stewards enquiry the places were reversed but then reversed back after appeal, ultimately the right decision was made & SIMPLE VERSE was the deserved winner.

St Leger - Record of winners & places SP's 2000 - 2015

2000 - MILLENARY 11/4f , 3/1 & 40/1

2001 - MILAN 13/8f, 10/1 & 3/1

2002 - BOLLIN ERIC 7/1, 10/1 & 13/8f

2003 - BRIAN BORU 5/4f, 8/1 & 8/1

2004 - RULE OF LAW 3/1jf, 3/1jf & 6/1

2005 - SCORPION 10/11f, 7/2 & 11/1

2006 - SIXTIES ICON 11/8f, 50/1 & 4/1

2007 - LUCARNO 7/2, 13/2 & 13/8f

2008 - CONDUIT 8/1, 14/1 & 11/4

2009 - MASTERY 14/1, 9/4f & 7/2

2010 - ARCTIC COSMOS 12/1, 13/2 & 40/1

2011 - MASKED MARVEL 15/2, 15/2 & 2/1f

2012 - ENCKE 25/1, 2/5f & 10/1

2013 - LEADING LIGHT 7/2f, 9/1 & 6/1

2014 - KINGSTON HILL 9/4f, 13/2 & 11/2

2015 - SIMPLE VERSE 8/1, 2/1jf & 10/3

2000 to 2007 was a great time for punters in the St Leger with 5 winning, very short prices favourites along with 2 other well backed, popular winners and overall 6 winners in that time were priced 7/2 or shorter.

2008 to 2012 was generally a fantastic time for bookmakers when it came to the St Leger as all 5 winners were 8/1 or bigger including winners returned at 12/1, 14/1 & 25/1, indeed the 2012 winner Encke winning at 25/1 was a stunning result for bookmakers as he beat the red hot 2/5f favourite that year.

2010 was pretty good for bookmakers as well on St Leger day with a 12/1 winner, 13/2 & 40/1 places.

Since 2012 there have been 2 very well backed favourites & none of the first 3 home in each of the 2013, 2014 & 2015 races were bigger than 9/1 so punters will be looking for that to continue this year & no doubt huge numbers will be piling into red hot favourite IDAHO who is currently Evens with sponsors Ladbrokes but will surely go off odds on when it comes to race time.

here is a link to race sponsor Ladbrokes odds :-

https://sports.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/betting/future-horse-racing/ladbrokes-st-leger/ladbrokes-st-leger/221907060/

St Leger - Jockey statistics

Frankie Dettori has so far won 5 St Leger's, incredibly with 5 different trainers with winning rides for Aidan O'Brien, Jeremy Noseda, Sir Michael Stoute, John Gosden & Saeed Bin Suroor.

At this stage I'm not certain that Andrea Atzeni will have a ride in the 2016 St Leger this coming Saturday but if he does he'll be chasing an incredible hat-trick after winning the Classic in 2014 & 2015.

Just like Atzeni, William Buick is chasing a 3rd win in the St Leger after winning it in 2010 & 2011

Godolphin's retained rider James Doyle , prolific in so many top races around Europe, is yet to win a Classic and he's actually looking for his first classic win aboard the Ed Dunlop trained Red Verdon who is joint 2nd favourite around 10/1 with sponsors Ladbrokes.

St Leger - interesting winner names

Ok, I've written about the incredible, fascinating St Leger facts and figures, hope you find it goes some way to representing 200+ years of rich history and tradition with incredible records from jockeys and trainers, to finish off with here is a list of winners names that caught me eye for a bit of fun :

1776 - ALLABACULIA - the first winner of the St Leger so has to be included

1779 - TOMMY - St Leger is my favourite race and there is a winner who shares the same name, perhaps that's why I've always loved the St Leger

1793 - NINETY-THREE - I mean what are the chances, a horse called 93 winning in 93

1817 - EBOR - Inspiration for a great race and meeting at York

1850 - VOLTIGEUR - name now used for the most important St Leger trial

1886 - ORMONDE - One of the greatest horses ever, inspiration for a great race

1942 - SUN CHARIOT ridden by Fred Darling, those 2 names now used for 2 hugely important races

1992 - BOLLIN ERIC - A Classic held in Yorkshire won by a Yorkshire trainer and by a horse called Eric, brilliant, oh and I won quite a bit backing him.

I love the St Leger, I truly believe it's a fantastic race and a Classic in every sense of the word, it's got an incredible history and hopefully you find my take on it interesting and useful in some way and agree that racing is just not all about trying to find the next winner but also about appreciating what's gone and been achieved before.
 Feel free to leave your thoughts on the St Leger here or if you are on twitter to me @tbuckleythinks, I'm always up for discussing the St Leger, all the best with your Ladbrokes St Leger bets