The latest St Leger news – straight from the stables

Brian Meehan, trainer of Raheen House
He's not going to run again before the St Leger. I don't want to drop him back in distance for the Gordon Stakes or the Great Voltigeur, and he's already a Group 3 winner, so it's not easy finding another race for him. I don't think he needs one anyway. I'm very happy with him and he worked well this morning.

Charlie Johnston, assistant to Mark Johnston, trainer of Permian, Cape Coast and Sofia's Rock
It's a speculative entry for Permian at this stage. He's shown himself to be really adaptable around a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half on fast and slow ground, so we wouldn't necessarily need to rush him up to the Leger trip – we'll see after his next run. It's likely he'll either go to the States for the Secretariat [August 12] or to Germany that same weekend for the Preis Von Berlin. We also have the Juddmonte International in mind as a back-up. Sofia's Rock ran a very good race in the Bahrain Trophy, which is probably one of the first Leger trials and you deserve an entry if you finish in the frame there. He'll be in the Gordon Stakes and the 1m4f handicap at Goodwood next week. He'd probably need to win one of those to go to the Leger, but he's got a cracking pedigree being a full brother to Prince Gibraltar, and that one got better at four so he should be a nice horse for next year. Cape Coast is lightly raced and progressive. He has a bit to do to prove he's up to that level but he's a good horse and ran really well at Ascot considering he'd also run on the Monday. We'll give him a bit longer and think about races like the Melrose.

Roger Varian, trainer of Defoe and Dubawi Prince
The St Leger is very much on the agenda for Defoe and is the priority now. Quite where he runs prior to the Leger I'm not sure, but he's hopefully Doncaster-bound and is gradually building a nice profile. Dubawi Prince is still a colt full of promise but hasn't run since April and when he does he has to justify he's good enough to think about races like this. Defoe would have more obvious credentials, but Dubawi Prince is a nice horse in his own right and I'm sure he'll improve.