Top broadcaster Mike Cattermole marks your card for St Leger day at Doncaster with Jim Crowley fancied to win his first Classic.
It took Sir Michael Stoute a long time to win the St Leger and in Crystal Ocean the legendary Newmarket trainer has a colt who has what it takes to follow his 2008 winner Conduit into the record books.
Crystal Ocean has been a long-term project of Stoute’s for a while now and it was a typical call of his to swerve the Derby with the son of Sea The Stars after a perfectly good-looking trial in the Dante behind Permian.
Yet in being redirected to the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, Crystal Ocean was a little disappointing when he could manage only third behind Permian again and Khalidi.
But it was his display in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood that revealed he was developing into a top-class colt as he comprehensively reversed the form with Khalidi on the soft ground there.
Crystal Ocean comes from a well-known family of good middle-distance performers, such as Hillstar and given that he was by Danehill Dancer, there must be every chance that Crystal Ocean, being by Sea The Stars, will comfortably last out the St Leger trip.
Also, being one of the lightest raced in the line-up, there has to be a decent chance that he will improve again, too. Jim Crowley is poised for a first Classic winner.
Capri, the Irish Derby winner, is solid and also shapes as though he will be suited by the trip and let’s face it, with stablemates The Anvil and Douglas Macarthur in the line-up, the chances are that this is going to be a proper test.
Capri’s defeat of Cracksman at the Curragh has been made to look even better recently and remember that the Derby winner Wings Of Eagles was back in third.
This is the best form in the race and Aidan O’Brien’s grey has to be feared as he bids to become the first since Nijinsky to complete the Curragh-Leger double. Stablemate Venice Beach looks like a stayer but may lack the class.
Roger Varian has won the race before with Kingston Hill who came into the race as a Derby runner-up and established as a top-class performer. Defoe arrives as a big improver and he has looked really impressive in winning all four this season. He stays the trip, is suited by a bit of ease in the ground and has a good turn of foot.
It is interesting that his rider Andrea Atzeni much prefers him to Stradivarius and is of the opinion that Crystal Ocean, who he has twice ridden before, will not necessarily be suited by the trip.
Stradivarius, like Capri, is the only other Group One winner in the field, having beaten Big Orange in the Goodwood Cup, to add to his earlier win in the Queens Vase when he narrowly beat Count Octave.
There are no stamina doubts here, obviously, and with both the Goodwood and Ascot form boosted here on Friday by Desert Skyline and Time To Study, will Frankie Dettori regret rejecting him and going for Coronet?
Coronet, who has been outclassed by Enable recently, is obviously smart but it is hard to see her being good enough.
It is a pity that Expert Eye misses the Group Two Howcroft Industrial Supplies Champagne Stakes which lacks a bit of stardust and maybe the good-looking Mythical Magic can maintain his unbeaten record for Charlie Appleby and James Doyle.
Both Mendelsohn, a $3m yearling, and Dream Today could be anything, however.
Stake Acclaim looks to be improving at just the right time and is top of my list for the very tricky William Hill Portland Handicap. He ran a great race off this mark at Windsor last time when racing all by himself up the stands’ rail.
Speaking of which, I will stake on Aclaim in the Alan Wood Park Stakes. Martyn Meade’s colt has had little luck in running on occasions but showed what he could do with a clear shot by running second to Brando in the Group One Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville last month.
The ground is drying up rather too quickly for the likes of Breton Rock.
Mike Cattermole's Doncaster Selections
Click on each horse to back it with Sky Bet
