Desert Hero faces battle royal in St Leger but can spoil Dettori's farewell
Desert Hero has already done his bit to cement the King and Queen’s involvement in racing by winning at Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood in their first season with the Royal silks but the William Haggas-trained colt can top that and spoil Frankie Dettori’s leaving party by winning the 247th Betfred St Leger, the oldest Classic, at Doncaster on Saturday.
There is an old saying in northern racing that “the fastest horse wins the Guineas; the luckiest wins the Derby - and the best wins the Leger” - proof, perhaps, that PR marketing was invented in Yorkshire, but you cannot argue that it is not an intriguing contest which could be won by any of the first half dozen in the betting.
For his last ride, Dettori, who is seeking a seventh Leger, has had a bit of thinking to do. He had been pencilled in for Gregory for ages but his first defeat, in the Voltigeur, and soft ground meant a late switch to Arrest, who is proven on it. I dare say it was a close call.
But there is optimism from Tom Marquand, who broke his Classic duck in this race almost by chance when Galileo Chrome’s Irish jockey could not travel at the last minute because of Covid and steered Big Evs to victory in the Carlsberg Danish Pilsner Flying Childers on Friday.
“It’s a big day,” Marquand admitted. “It’s one I’ve had the chance to look forward to for a while now. It would be very hard to knock winning on him at Royal Ascot off my personal highlight but winning the Leger would. All races are important to win but that has an extra something.
“The only question mark is the trip, everything else seems in place. He’s bred to stay, he’s never given any doubt about not staying, it’s just will he get it on soft ground?”
It will not be in the script of the person writing Dettori’s farewell nor the writers of the royalty-based TV series The Crown but there has to be a distinct possibility that Continuous will spoil the party.
Continuous was impressive picking up the pieces when the Voltigeur fell apart and, though there are stamina question marks about him too, if he stays he is a major threat.
Chesspiece and Middle Earth are each-way players but providing Desert Hero does not get sucked into a contest from a long way out, he has the gears and finishing kick which his opponents may be lacking.
The scriptwriters honed their art on Friday when crowd favourite Trueshan and Marquand’s wife Hollie Doyle won the Betfred Doncaster Cup. For a mile and a half Doyle struggled to contain Alan King’s seven-year-old and turning into the straight let him go.
He strode into a three-length lead and Doyle brought him wide on the better ground. She was briefly headed by the runner-up Sweet William but there was a roar from the crowd when Trueshan stayed on back past to win by a length and a quarter.
“He’s back to his best,” declared the jockey afterwards. “He can settle if they go fast enough but they crawled and breaking a horse’s stride is never going to end well. I love him to bits. I should think Alan was spitting feathers at the top of the straight (when he shot clear) but it worked out well.”
