The final British Classic of the season takes place this afternoon as all eyes turn towards the Betfred St Leger at Doncaster.
The Town Moor card also includes the Betfred-backed Champagne Stakes, Portland Handicap and Park Stakes ahead of Britain’s oldest Classic contest.
Elsewhere, Flat racing is from Bath, Chester, Lingfield (AW) and Musselburgh, while jumps racing returns to Navan for the first time this season.
Aidan O’Brien accounts for no less than four of the nine contenders in the St Leger and the Irishman is taken to get his seventh career win with Continuous.
Saturday Racing Tips
14:05 Chester – Bluestocking @ 4/5
Chester’s afternoon card starts with the Stand Cup Stakes, a Listed event over the extended mile-and-a-half trip and it should offer a good opening for Ralph Beckett’s BLUESTOCKING.
The Camelot filly is a touch unfortunate to be winless this season in four starts. She twice bumped into Warm Heart early on at Newbury and Ascot and looked the most likely winner in the Group 1 Irish Oaks at the Curragh in July, only for Ryan Moore to lift Savethelastdance home and leave her settling for second.
Since that, she has been a fair fourth in the Yorkshire Oaks – once more a race won by the progressive Warm Heart – and a drop in class should present her with the chance to record a first win since her Salisbury debut in September last year – her sole 2YO outing.
15:35 Doncaster – Continuous @ 7/2
It’s less than a week since Aidan O’Brien notched the 4,000th winner of his extraordinary career at the Curragh during the Irish Champions Festival and he can land the final British Classic of the year via CONTINUOUS.
Going through the barrier of 4,000 winners is incredible in itself but even more staggering is the fact that 417 of those winners have been in Group 1 races. More than one in ten.
He’s got a great chance of another here with four St Leger contenders and last month’s Great Voltigeur winner has standout claims under Ryan Moore.
Connection have always held this Heart’s Cry colt in high regard but after being unbeaten as a 2YO he went 0-3 on his return this season, though he was second to King Of Steel at Royal Ascot in June.
He had a break after that and looked better than ever in his York success last month. Moore held him up out the back in that race and was rewarded with a powerful finish as they overhauled the hitherto unbeaten Gregory (re-opposes now) before going away to win by nearly four-lengths.
There’s plenty in this race that like to go forward – Gregory, Arrest and Chesspiece amongst them – and so Moore is once again likely to be playing his cards late.
With the promise of more to come up in trip, it could make Continuous very tough to hold when things get desperate for some of their rivals inside the final two-furlongs of this ultimate stamina-test for the Classic generation.
18:00 Musselburgh – Black Friday @ 12/1
Musselburgh have some quality racing across the weekend and Saturday’s card is an afternoon-into-evening meeting at the Edinburgh venue.
Their Travis Perkins Handicap over 7f is a Betfred Super Extra Place Race (four places) and while the consistent Ascot Adventure is respected, David O’Meara’s charge faces a tough challenge giving 10lb to BLACK FRIDAY.
The selection won at Ayr five weeks ago over this 7f trip and did so with more in hand than a neck margin would suggest.
The handicapper has only nudged him up 2lb and he now returns to a venue where he has won twice previously, including over this trip.
That win recently was his first since October 2021 and he remains well treated off this mark, so he’s rated a key player in a race where plenty of his rivals are searching for form.
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