The St. Leger Stakes

The St. Leger Stakes is the last part of the Triple Crown and is scheduled to be run on Saturday 11th September at Doncaster race course. This race is a Group 1 flat race which is open to three year old colts and fillies, run over a distance of 1 mile, 6 furlongs and 132 yards.

Of the five classic races:

1. 2′000 Guineas
2. 1′000 Guineas
3. Epsom Derby
4. Epsom Oaks
5. St. Leger Stakes

The St. Leger is the oldest, having been established in 1776. It is the last of the five to be raced each year and takes place over a distance that is longer than any of the others. The race was invented by Anthony St. Leger and was originally called A Sweepstake Of 25 Guineas. It took its current title in 1777 at a dinner party held to discuss the event for the next year.

Originally a two mile race, the distance was reduced to its current length in 1813. In all this time the race has only been cancelled once, which was during the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The race has inspired similar events all around the world, such as the Irish St. Leger and the St. Leger Italiano.

Interestingly the jockey, trainer and owner with the best win rates in this race were alive in the late 18th century to the mid-19th century and we have not been able to better them yet. Unfortunately this will not help us much with determining who may have an advantage this year.

There is one jockey who has been performing very well in this race for the last five years and that is Frankie Dettori. Winning three of the last five St. Leger races you must be watchful of whichever runner he chooses to ride.

For the last 12 years Saeed Bin Suroor has produced an impressive amount of winners which makes him a trainer to watch out for, alongside Aidan O’Brien who also has a good strike rate in this race as well.

The betting market will be very important closer to the race date as the favourite statistically performs exceptionally well. Any horses that are at odds of 9.00 or higher I would be slightly more wary of as they do not, historically, perform as well.

Other trends for this race include runners who have never run more than one mile and four furlongs before, and who preferably ran at this distance in their last race, finishing in the top four. A previous Group race winner also tips the balance in a horse’s favour as well.

These are some of the pre-race trends that, although the race is still some way off, may help you to begin deciding which runners you would like to bet on and possibly get the advantage of taking some large odds in the antepost betting market.