Odds and preview for Wednesday’s Festival opener at Doncaster
The 2020 St Leger Festival gets underway at Doncaster Racecourse with Leger Legends Day, with four days of thrilling racing to enjoy.
A limited number of spectators will be allowed through the gates at Doncaster as the festival is one of several pilot events to welcome crowds back to sporting events.
There are seven races across the day’s card for the limited number of spectators to enjoy, including the Listed Scarbrough Stakes, Group 3 Sceptre Fillies’ Stakes and more.
Ahead of the action, we’ve cast our eye over our pick of the day’s races.
With a field full of plenty of promising two-year-olds, it’s Gumdrop who has been showing the most promise recently. Finishing fifth on his opening two despite showing good speed but won last time out on Nursery debut at Chester. He’s up 9lbs, but still has plenty more to show.
Ataser is another who has shown the promise, winning two of four in his early career including a win over the 7f dash in the Stallions Nursery at York last time out. We’ve not seen a bad run yet and there’s still plenty more to come.
Mayaas may have lost out to Ataser at York, but he’s progressed well with each run to date. He’s yet to win but slight improvement could see him notch his first winner here. He’s now tasked with running with cheekpieces but there’s no reason that’ll slow him.
After going through the ranks last year, Moss Gill landed the Listed City Walls Stakes at York in June, proving he’s a pattern-class sprinter. He followed it up with a third in the Nunthorpe, no match for the front two, but he’s a very capable winner.
Dakota Gold could prove the biggest threat out front, winning five races throughout 2019. Looked as though form wouldn’t carry through into 2020 after a slow start but has come on now, winning the Beverley Bullet and an impressive second in the Garrowby Stakes at York.
Despite not winning since April 2019, Urban Beat has found better form with an impressive second on the dirt track of Navan two weeks ago. He’ll be wearing cheekpieces but could spring a surprise.
After switching to Andrew Balding’s yard, Bounce The Blue could run well in the first outing for her new trainer after progressing well for John Feane in Ireland. The three-year-old filly finished strongly to win the Owenstown Stud Stakes at Naas last time out with even more to come.
Jubiloso burst onto the scene by placing in last year’s Coronation Stakes on only her third run but hasn’t yet pushed on from that. Seemed slightly wayward on her return, but if she can find form, she’ll stake claims at the front.
After following up a career best winning run in the Fillies’ Stakes at Newbury on return, Mubtasimah followed up with a disappointing fourth in a similar run at Chelmsford. She led from the front early on but faded, but if she can maintain this time, she could challenge.
