Continuous is in complete control of the Betfred St Leger

Simon Holt opinion | Disliking Continuous use of pacemakers

By Simon Holt

Horse Racing

Fri September 12, 2025 · 3M ago

Simon Holt feels pacemakers should be highlighted as such on racecards after events this season while he takes a look at the Betfred St Leger.

Pacemakers should be highlighted on racecards

Running a horse without any intention to win is just about the worst offence that can be committed in horse racing as it is can cost punters who may have bet on the horse in question.

Yet, even in some of the biggest races staged this Flat race season, there have been horses who ran without being ridden to attain the best position possible.

I refer, of course, to pacemakers whose role is to set up a race for a better fancied stable-companion, or a horse in the same ownership, despite it being against the Rules Of Racing to facilitate a rival's chance or to run as a team.

Two years ago, Saturday's Betfred St Leger was won by the Aidan O'Brien-trained colt Continuous but, despite winning over a million pounds in prize money, the horse is now used to benefit younger stable companions.

In his last four races this season, Continuous has started at 50/1, 66/1, 100/1 and 40/1, setting the pace for Jan Brueghel in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and Coronation Cup, and for Los Angeles in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes.

Then, on his latest appearance in the King George at Ascot, everyone anticipated that he would again make the running except he sat second behind Jan Brueghel.

In the end they finished fourth and fifth behind Calandagan and there were mystified looks all round.

While having great respect for all that Coolmore and Aidan O'Brien have achieved, it is saddening to see a Classic winner deployed merely as a sacrificial lamb and with questionable effect.

Sometimes, running pacemakers can lead to over-thinking a race, as was possibly the case in the King George. And, when Continuous had gone too fast for Los Angeles and set up the race for Ombudsman at Royal Ascot, O'Brien admitted they had got it wrong.

Later, the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood produced a shock result when the 150/1 rag Qirat was deployed to make the pace for stable companion Field Of Gold only to be given too much rope by the other runners.

And the same very nearly happened in the Juddmonte International in which Godolphin's Birr Castle was allowed to go over 20 lengths clear before being reeled in only late on by the ownership's number one hope Ombudsman.

Some have said that Birr Castle ran a career best, and he probably did at odds of (again) 150/1. But we can surely agree that, if it was the intention to win the race, he would not have been ridden in that manner.

In every race, each runner is usually bet on and, without knowing that he was merely a pacemaker, some punters will have backed Birr Castle when they had very little chance of winning.

The BHA needs to enforce the rules and, at the very least, require any horse who is fielded as a pacemaker to be declared as such with a note added to racecards.

Meanwhile, it was very revealing when John Gosden stated that one of the reasons he didn't want to run Ombudsman in Saturday's Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes was because of the risk of his colt being crowded by a team of runners up a shortish home straight.

Horses running as a team. It's not supposed to be allowed.

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Carmers could be the Leger answer

Looking ahead to Saturday's Betfred St Leger renewal, Aidan O'Brien trains three of the seven runners and, on this occasion, hardly needs a pacemaker as Scandinavia and Lambourn are both comfortable enough going forward unless there is a change of brief for Stay True.

Scandinavia looks set to start a warm favourite but, back in June, such a scenario would have been hard to predict.

The final Classic provides a re-run of the Queen's Vase at Royal Ascot where Carmers fought off Furthur with Rahiebb third and Scandinavia only fifth.

The latter was not even the chosen mount of Ballydoyle number one Ryan Moore who rode Shackleton into fourth place that day.

All of the horses involved were still at an early stage of their three-year-old careers and, therefore, could all be expected to improve.

Carmers probably stepped up when second to Pride Of Arras in the Great Voltigeur over an inadequate mile-and-a-half at York last month when he finished just ahead of the re-opposing Stay True with the disappointing dual Derby winner Lambourn beaten a cumulative three lengths into fifth.

Furthur won the Geoffrey Freer at Newbury and Rahiebb was quite a well beaten fourth behind the now injured Merchant in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood.

Meanwhile, the strapping Scandinavia appears to have taken off, winning the Bahrain Trophy by over eight lengths before beating his stable-mate Illinois in the Goodwood Cup.

As you might expect, he is well bred by Justify (sire of City Of Troy) out of an unraced Galileo half sister to Giant's Causeway and, at a price of around 11/8, the bookmakers seem to think that it's his race to lose and they could easily be right.

In addition, O'Brien (eight Leger wins) is dominating the race having won the last two runnings with the aforementioned Continuous and Jan Brueghel and, while he will miss the services of the injured Moore, Sean Levey (Lambourn), Mickael Barzalona (Stay True) and Tom Marquand (Scandinavia) are all more than capable deputies.

So perhaps the final Classic is a foregone conclusion but is it?

When Scandinavia won at Newmarket, the opposition was very weak and Further, who finished a distant fifth, clearly didn't run his race.

For sure, he beat some decent stayers at Goodwood but receiving a stone in weight-for-age.

Moreover, O'Brien's form in top races has been a bit patchy of late and, while Bedtime Story and The Lion In Winter ran respectably on Arc Trials Day at Paris-Longchamp last Sunday, both Whirl and Los Angeles were disappointing.

And, with all due respect to those other jockeys, there is only one Ryan Moore.

If that's enough to put you off taking a short price, perhaps Carmers (under Billy Lee) is the value returning to a distance very similar to that of the Queen's Vase.

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