Doncaster Saturday

Pertemps St Leger Stakes (Group 1)

THE unfortunate Shane Crosse’s loss was Tom Marquand’s gain, as Joseph O’Brien’s Galileo Chrome provided the rider with his first classic victory in the Pertemps St Leger at Doncaster on Saturday.

Marquand was told he’d be riding the winner while waiting to go into the stalls in Friday’s Flying Childers’ Stakes because of regular rider’s Crosse’s positive test for Covid-19.

His mount raced in midfield as Subjectivist and Mythical helped set a strong pace, the former not helped by having company in his accustomed front-running role, and that pair were spent halfway up the straight.

Berkshire Rocco (Andrew Balding/Andrea Atzeni) was the first to throw down a serious challenge as he hit the front, travelling well with over a quarter mile to run. He battled on well when joined by Galileo Chrome soon after, as both Hukum and Pyledriver (William Muir/Martin Dwyer) produced their own challenges on the far side of the track.

Santiago, sent off favourite at 5/2 under Ryan Moore, dwelt at the start, but was produced with a smooth run to join this leading group at the same juncture, and a grandstand finish looked on the cards.

With just over a furlong to run, any one of five might have won, but at this point stamina began to be tested, and a couple of those who had moved up easily began to show the strain, with Pyledriver swerving left when shown the whip by Martin Dwyer, and Hukum’s run began to flatten out quite quickly.

Stiff finish

Santiago stayed on at the same pace, but it was Joseph O’Brien’s well-backed 4/1 shot who relished the stiff finish, and he comfortably held Berkshire Rocco’s rally to win by a neck. Pyledriver did well to renew his challenge despite ending up away from the action, and he held off Santiago by a short head for third, a length behind the runner-up.

Sympathies

Marquand’s first reaction was to offer sympathies to Shane Crosse, and he knows what it means to miss out on a big chance like this, having lost the ride on ante-post Derby favourite English King to Frankie Dettori: “I can’t say how bad I feel for him because we’ve all been in situations where things haven’t gone our way and we’re both relatively young, so I can relate and he’ll be sat at home in pieces, no doubt. I guess in racing it all comes back round. No doubt he’ll have his time and I look forward to seeing him do it.

“It really is a dream come true. Classics in Britain are some of the hardest races to come across. It’s mind-blowing to get an opportunity like this.”

The winning trainer watched the race at home rather than attending Irish Champions Weekend a precaution after Crosse’s positive Covid-19 test, but he was delighted with horse and jockey as he notched his second classic win and his first in Britain: “It’s fantastic, a great performance from the horse and Tom gave him a fantastic ride. He’s obviously been riding extremely well for a number of years now all over the world – and when he was available, we didn’t have to look any further. It’s very well-deserved.

“Shane, I’m sure, is obviously gutted to miss the ride, but he’s a young man, and he’s a very talented rider and he’ll have plenty of big rides in the future.”

O’Brien regularly carves out a bit of racing history given his seamless transition from top-level rider to trainer in the same mould and he can add the St Leger to this list of big races he’s now won as both jockey and trainer, having scored aboard Leading Light in 2013.