The Rab Havlin Blog – Doncaster St Leger Meeting – Day Two Special

It panned out well for me yesterday, my evening rides at Kempton Park allowing me ample time to settle down and digest all seven races on an entertaining opening day on Town Moor.

Whether you’re riding at Doncaster or watching from afar, the St Leger Meeting is exactly the type of big fixture all of us in the weighing room look forward to, and as ever there’s plenty of talent on display on day two.

I’m on duty at Chepstow so will be keeping tabs in-between rides on what I hope will turn out to be a successful day for my principal employer, John Gosden.

The boss runs Enbihaar in the extended mile and three quarter Group 2 Park Hill Stakes at 2.40pm, a race in which she clashes with Ed Vaughan’s talented three year old Dame Malliot, the pair of them standing out against the remainder on official ratings.

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My great pal Frankie Dettori is on the latter, a really likeable filly who has done well for Ed and has the advantage of a valuable weight for age allowance.

There’s no doubting she’s a very tough opponent, though in fairness these are a pair progressive filles.

Having won over a mile and six furlongs last time we know ours is a strong stayer who will keep finding. She keeps on surprising us with how tough, gritty and durable she is, and hopefully it’s those qualities which enable her to shade what looks set to be a great race to watch.

Later on, in the other Group 2 on the card, our stable have Run Wild out over a mile in the May Hill Stakes at 3.45pm.

Her rider Oisin Murphy is having a phenomenal season and steered her to a six length victory when the pair tackled today’s distance for the first time, that win coming on the all-weather at Kempton 15 days ago.

It’s a big jump up into a race of this nature and at this level, one packed full of promising, unexposed sorts from good stables, but Mr Gosden is a master at knowing when to raise a horse’s sights and she couldn’t come into it in better form.

I certainly don’t think she’ll be too far away. Her victory the last day was both highly impressive and a big improvement, coming when we removed the hood she’d worn for her first two starts over lesser trips.

If she can come on again she can be in the shake-up in what looks a wide-open contest.

Check back again tomorrow when I’ll be talking about one of my favourite subjects, namely the star of day three in the shape of Stradivarius and his bid to land the Doncaster Cup and in doing so extend his winning run into double figures.