RANKED: the ten greatest St Legers - including Lester Piggott's famous swipe at rival jockey and a magic moment for the Queen
Julian Muscat counts down the most memorable editions of the Doncaster Classic as it turns 250
The St Leger turns 250 next weekend, when its 250th birthday also marks the 250th running as it skipped a year in 1939 because of the outbreak of World War II. To celebrate its rich history, we’re counting down its ten most memorable runnings.
10 West Australian 1853
West Australian’s victory marked the first time any horse had won what were deemed to be the three most important races for three-year-olds in Britain: the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger. This milestone gave rise to the concept of the Triple Crown and was thus a historic landmark.
West Australian’s St Leger triumph was rapturously received at Doncaster, since he was trained in North Yorkshire by John Scott, who would saddle 40 Classic winners from his Malton stables. The colt who was beaten on his two-year-old debut went on to win the other nine races he contested.
His St Leger victory was nonchalantly gained by three lengths, after which his jockey, Frank Butler, said: “I only touched him with the whip once and I was glad to get him stopped [at the end of the race].” The following year he won the Gold Cup at Ascot, again with great ease.
West Australian was one of the best racehorses of the 19th century and belongs in the racing annals for the fact that he was the first of 15 horses to date who have completed the Triple Crown.
9 Conduit 2008
If a single horse epitomised Sir Michael Stoute’s trademark patience, it was Conduit. In April 2008 the colt was beaten in a Sandown handicap off an official mark of 79. Fifteen months later he would win the King George at Ascot.
Conduit was one of two Stoute-trained runners in the St Leger, with stable jockey Ryan Moore opting to ride Dr Fremantle. Stoute thus deployed Frankie Dettori, and after the rider brought Conduit home a three-length winner he planted a kiss smack on the unsuspecting Stoute’s lips.
Stoute had finally won the only British Classic to have eluded him, while Conduit went from strength to strength. The orphaned foal who was bullied in the paddocks was as hard as nails on the track.
8 Ballymoss 1957
The St Leger victory of Ballymoss was the first major British Flat race won by Irish training legend Vincent O’Brien, who had won the Grand National in three successive years from 1954 – each time with a different horse.
The son of Mossborough had been beaten badly on his previous start when the heavens opened ahead of the Great Voltigeur Stakes. Thereafter, O’Brien would tremble like a frightened mouse whenever rain fell ahead of a big race at York, where the racecourse sits on a flat floodplain of the River Ouse.
Nevertheless, that Doncaster triumph by Ballymoss, in which he beat Court Harwell by a length, presaged a glittering four-year-old campaign. He landed the Coronation Cup, Eclipse and King George before he triumphed in the Arc by two lengths. Only the very best compile such winning sequences.
7 Oh So Sharp 1985
At the start of 1985 Sheikh Mohammed had yet to win a British Classic. At the end of it he had won three, each of them delivered by Oh So Sharp. Her St Leger victory followed those in the 1,000 Guineas (in record time) and Oaks (by six lengths). She thus became the first winner of the fillies’ Triple Crown since Meld 30 years earlier.
Although Oh So Sharp’s St Leger defeat of outsider Phardante by three-quarters of a length does not read particularly well, she had an arduous three-year-old campaign. She was beaten on both her starts against colts in all-aged competition but acquitted herself well, when beating all bar Petoski in the King George and Commanche Run in the International Stakes.
A daughter of Kris, Oh So Sharp was bred by Sheikh Mohammed when she was bought in utero as part of the sheikh’s purchase of Dalham Hall Stud and its stock in 1981. The Newmarket stud would evolve into the headquarters of Godolphin’s global racing and breeding operation.
6 Commanche Run 1984
Commanche Run’s victory was memorable for the fact that it gave Lester Piggott his 28th British Classic, thus catapulting Piggott above Frank Buckle as the most successful jockey in that category.
In the St Leger build-up Piggott replaced Darrell McHargue aboard Commanche Run at owner Ivan Allen’s insistence. McHargue said he would not be watching the St Leger since he would be playing tennis. Come raceday morning Piggott was asked if the heavy rain would compromise Commanche Run’s chances. “No,” he smiled, “but it will ruin McHargue’s tennis.”
Commanche Run’s four-year-old exploits suggested the St Leger’s 1m6f was beyond his best, yet Piggott, having taken the lead four furlongs out, husbanded the colt’s stamina brilliantly down Doncaster’s long straight to resist Baynoun by a neck.
The following season Commanche Run won the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup (International Stakes) and Irish Champion Stakes, both over 1m2f. As for Piggott, he would extend his Classic tally to 30 before his retirement.
5 Black Tarquin 1948
Black Tarquin’s defeat of Alycidon was among the Doncaster Classic’s foremost runnings, since both horses were acclaimed as champions at the close of their racing careers.
That St Leger win – watched by the King and Queen, together with 500,000 others – led to Black Tarquin being crowned the champion three-year-old colt ahead of Alycidon. But the tables were turned in the following year’s Gold Cup at Ascot, when Alycidon ran Black Tarquin ragged to win by five lengths. Alycidon won all seven of his starts that year, when he claimed the stayers’ Triple Crown.
Owned and bred by US banker William Woodward snr, Black Tarquin boasted a regal pedigree. By the 1936 Eclipse Stakes winner Rhodes Scholar, he was out of the champion US racemare Vagrancy, whose distant pedigree contained some non-thoroughbred influences. Consequently, Black Tarquin was ineligible for entry to the General Stud Book by dint of the Jersey Act, which was introduced in 1913. The act was rescinded in 1949, thanks in part to Black Tarquin’s exploits.
4 Dunfermline 1977
Dunfermline’s defeat of Alleged earned her recognition as the best racehorse owned by Queen Elizabeth II. It was the only time Alleged, who would subsequently win two Arcs, met with defeat in his ten-race career.
Having been abetted by two pacemakers, Willie Carson on Dunfermline tracked Alleged, ridden by Lester Piggott, down the Doncaster straight before ranging up to and beyond the colt to post a famous royal triumph. Sadly, however, the Queen was not present in the year of her Silver Jubilee to see her homebred filly win by a length and a half.
Carson was at his best that day, with the pacemakers having played their part in softening up Alleged before Dunfermline’s bottomless stamina came into play. Dunfermline had earlier won the Oaks, which, together with her St Leger triumph, propelled her into pole position as Europe’s top-rated three-year-old filly in 1977. She was also the last of Queen Elizabeth II’s six Classic winners, although she made little impact at stud.
2= The Flying Dutchman 1849; Voltigeur 1850
There’s no third place in this list, given The Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur deserve equal billing in second, the legacies of these two great Yorkshire champions all but superimposed upon each other by The Great Match they contested at York in 1851.
Both horses had won the Derby before their respective St Leger triumphs. Voltigeur prevailed at Doncaster in a run-off over the course and distance soon after he had dead-heated with Russborough, yet two days after having covered nearly four miles at racing pace, he took on The Flying Dutchman in the Doncaster Cup. It did not stop him winning by half a length.
The Flying Dutchman, for his part, approached the 1849 St Leger having walked over in his two intended starts after the Derby. He was not unduly pressed in winning by two lengths and won both his races at four ahead of his Doncaster Cup clash with Voltigeur.
Despite that defeat, five-year-old The Flying Dutchman was asked to give the year-younger Voltigeur 7½lb in The Great Match at York the following season. The former’s jockey, Charles Marlow, held The Flying Dutchman up this time, having set a breakneck pace in the Doncaster Cup, when he was said to have been drunk.
The tactic paid off. Before a record crowd of more than 100,000 on the Knavesmire, The Flying Dutchman engaged Voltigeur in the final furlong before winning snugly by half a length.
Having avenged his Doncaster Cup defeat, The Flying Dutchman was retired immediately after The Great Match while Voltigeur raced on as a five-year-old. Fittingly, he won the inaugural running of The Flying Dutchman Handicap at York in 1852.
And in number one? Don’t miss The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers on Saturday, in which Julian Muscat tells the remarkable story of the race which tops our list and the extraordinary horse who won it.
Read these next:
Alan King hopes his Ebor star can take him where Trueshan couldn't - but rules out Melbourne Cup bid
Looking for free bets? Racing Post have got the best offers, all in one place. Visit racingpost.com/freebets to find out more.
Published on inFeatures
Last updated
Copy- The first ever black champion jockey in South Africa is now its most notorious race-fixer - this is his extraordinary story
- Arc Q&A: 'He looks unbelievably well' - my inside track on Daryz, how to make sense of French going and the real importance of the draw
- He's survived a scalping, two broken legs and bankruptcy - but now this extraordinary trainer has reached the end of the road
- How Gordon Elliott unwittingly changed Jim Crowley’s life - and set him on the path to the top
- 'He should be overlooked at your peril' - odds-compilers mark your card for Royal Ascot
- The first ever black champion jockey in South Africa is now its most notorious race-fixer - this is his extraordinary story
- Arc Q&A: 'He looks unbelievably well' - my inside track on Daryz, how to make sense of French going and the real importance of the draw
- He's survived a scalping, two broken legs and bankruptcy - but now this extraordinary trainer has reached the end of the road
- How Gordon Elliott unwittingly changed Jim Crowley’s life - and set him on the path to the top
- 'He should be overlooked at your peril' - odds-compilers mark your card for Royal Ascot