We returned to the winner’s enclosure on Saturday on the TXMarkets blog. Joe Leavy landed the NAP at 12/1 on Grey’s Monument, making all in fine style. Hieronymus drifted like a barge to 80s but made a bold bid as we hoped, holding on for third. Poniros probably lacked a bit of fitness but he placed for us too at 16s. Hopefully we can land another winner with this 2024 St Leger Ante-Post tip.
Leger Losing Its Lustre
It is fair to say this contest has lost a fair bit of its
lustre in recent years. In an era where the majority of flat breeders are
obsessed by speed, most Leger winners nowadays end up destined to spend their
days at stud as national hunt stallions, covering mares for three or four grand
a pop.
Kingston Hill is standing for £3k. Harbour Law (£2k), Capri
(£2.5k), Kew Gardens (£3k), Logician (£4k) and the 2020 winner Galileo Chrome
(£3k) are all in and around that number too. Hurricane Lane won in 2021 and
entered stud this year at an eye-popping fee of £6k. Surely there has to be
some value in there somewhere…
This Year’s Race
Anyway, onto this year’s race. Predictably, the top few in
the betting are Ballydoyle representatives and the home challenge looks to be
spearheaded by Ralph Beckett’s You Got To Me and David Menuisier’s Sunway. The
latter horse is one I like and I firmly believe he has a Group 1 win in him.
Will it be this? It could be, but I’d love to see him in the Arc on testing ground
and he’ll be a more suitable price for the blog in that.
The one I like at odds of 20/1 is the son of Camelot, Deira
Mile. Owen Burrows has been adamant for a long time that this is a Leger horse
and after his run in the Epsom Derby, I can see where he is coming from. We
backed him (NB) at
25/1 for 4 places that day and he stayed on from the back for fourth, 7.5L
behind City Of Troy.
Course Form
Last year, he ran a huge race to finish a 2.75L fourth behind
Ancient Wisdom in the G1 Futurity at Doncaster, so he acts on this track and
while he has form on bad ground, his run in the Derby proved he can be competitive
on better ground too so it won’t really matter what the weather does.
He’s presumably priced up at 20s because he didn’t win an
11.5f Listed heat at Windsor on his return from an 84 day break. He was clearly
too fresh and likely needed the run so that effort doesn’t put me off in the
slightest. It was obviously just a prep run for this and hopefully, it will
have left him spot on. 20/1 looks far too big a price to me and at those odds,
Deira Mile has to be worth backing e/w.
2024 St Leger Ante-Post Tip: Deira Mile e/w @ 20/1
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