ST. LEGER, GETTING MORE LIKE THE U.S. EVERYDAY, MUSICAL TIMES & UPDATE ON YESTERDAY.

In the history of this site, I have on various occasions proposed that the St. Leger be removed from its classic status, be upgraded to the most valuable flat race in Britain and opened-up to older horses, an alternative to the Arc, and keep its classic status but lose its tag as part of the triple crown, with the Eclipse restricted to 3-year-olds and upgraded to classic status. As far as I am aware no one has ever supported me in any of these proposals, even with 10-furlongs now considered the sexiest distance and with the Eclipse viewed far more as a stallion-maker than can ever be hoped for the St. Leger.

The St. Leger always was my favourite of the five classics; my wish for change is based on not wanting to see the race become an irrelevance, a consolation classic, as I have termed it. It is a classic, the oldest in the world, yet Champions Weekend, as it is now titled, in Ireland is now considered more prestigious, with Ryan Moore, for instance, always there nowadays and not at Doncaster. Could you imagine Ryan being elsewhere on Guineas weekend rather than at Newmarket or not at Epsom for the Derby or Oaks? I doubt if Aidan will be at Doncaster this evening either. Surely this clash with ChampionsWeekend coud be avoided; surely it cannot be unimaginable for the St. Leger to be staged a week earlier, if Ireland cannot be persuaded to move the date for their big weekend?

That all said and done, the 250th St. Leger, without being the classiest renewal in its history, does look competitive, if only because father and son go head-to-head. Personally, I cannot see Christmas Day being beaten and find it even harder to predict anything other than an O'Brien family 1, 2, 3, 4, with no British-trained runner getting a sniff, which again proves my point that the race is being kept alive by Coolmore and the O'Briens. Obviously, I would like Highwayman to make classic history by providing Saffie Osborne with the honour of being the first female to win a British classic. The horse would be a novel winner given he was near useless until two runs ago when Joseph was inspired to step him up in trip from 7 and 8-furlong to near 12-furlong, winning a maiden by 9-length and then winning a listed race over 14-furlongs. Joseph already has a hatful of feathers in his cap; if Highwayman wins tomorrow afternoon he will need to buy a new hat with a broad band for all those ostrich feathers coming his way. Falah Bughenaim will also be making history by becoming the first jockey from his neck of the woods to ride in a St. Leger, acquiring the mount of Hatteen, the leading hope of the British-trained contingent.

Mr. O'Connor of Kilburn, who is obviously far more observant than I am, in a letter published in today's Racing Post, points out that at Catterick and Leicester on Tuesday there were only 3-races run in excess of 7-furlongs out of the 16 that comprised the two meetings. Firstly, and straying slightly from the point, where was the need for these two meetings to stage 16-races between them? How does this improve competitiveness? And returning to the thrust of Mr. O'Connor's observation, why must our racing begin to look more and more like racing in the U.S., where 10-furlongs is looked-upon as a stayers distance? I know when it comes to the composition of a race-meeting that the B.H.A. want to be flexibl, allowing clerks to be imaginative with conditions of races, but I do think they should produce a regulation that at every flat meeting there should be at least one race over 12-furlongs or further.

Although Musical Times looked the real deal in the May Hill, I think we should take a pause before elevating her beyond that particular race until we discover how those easily beaten run between now and the end of the season. My instincts went from 'wow' to 'hold on a minute', as if what I witnessed was too good to be true.

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Wednesday, after apologising for the absence of a blog the following day, as I was about to put my laptop to bed, I suddenly thought 'why not post two blogs by dredging an article up from the archive'. Of course, what I should have done is left it on the computer to automatically post for yesterday morning, but I was not quite sure how to do that, so I went for the safer option. (Tech frightens me, I have to admit.) Somewhat annoyingly, the 2019 blog achieved more hits than any blog since I had the site upgraded back in February, the popularity, it seems, of the subject of the article, Bryony Frost. I might just put her name in the title on a daily basis as click bait. And yes, I continue to miss her presence on British racecourses. If anyone knows how she is doing in France, I would welcome an update.