Thursday sees the 2024 edition of the Doncaster St. Leger Festival kick into gear as the Town Moor venue lays on three days of quality action. The final Classic of the 2024 season rightly takes centre stage on the closing Saturday, but that 1m6½f contest isn’t the only high-class event for the stayers on offer.
Around 24 hours before the big one, a field of stamina-laden stars tackle the marathon 2m2f trip in the Doncaster Cup. Open to runners aged three and older and offering £140,000 in total prize money, the names of greats such as Le Moss, Double Trigger, and Stradivarius feature on an illustrious roll of honour. But who will join them in 2024?
This Year’s Contenders
With seven or fewer runners lining up in the past five editions, a relatively small field has become a trend in this Group 2 affair. That pattern continues in 2024. With the final declarations made, a field of six awaits on Friday afternoon. However, the lack of numbers does little to detract from what promises to be an enthralling spectacle.
1. Coltrane – 9/1
This Andrew Balding star will be making his third Doncaster Cup appearance. His two previous efforts yielded starkly contrasting results; getting up to deny Trueshan in the 2022 edition, he then finished last of five behind that rival when attempting to defend his crown in 2023.
Coltrane’s performances in 2024 are similarly mixed. Victory in the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes stands as a sole high point, with his other three outings producing heavy defeats – including a last-of-six effort in the Goodwood Cup last time. He needs to bounce back, but is hard to dismiss given his talent and previous win in the race.
2. Gregory – 5/2
The first of two John & Thady Gosden runners in the field will make his second Doncaster appearance, having finished fifth in the 2023 St. Leger. Having blitzed through the ranks in the first three starts of his career, Gregory’s St. Leger run and subsequent outings have to go down as slightly disappointing.
On the plus side, his two most recent runs have been his best of the season. Going down by a respectable 4¼l to the mighty Kyprios when third in the Goodwood Cup, he again finished third in the Yorkshire Cup last time. He’s yet to win beyond 1m6f, but was doing all his best work late over 2m at York and may be hitting form at the right time.
3. Point Lonsdale – 5/1
Ballydoyle supremo Aidan O’Brien landed back-to-back editions of this with Septimus and Honolulu in 2007 and 2008 but is without a Doncaster Cup success since. Point Lonsdale is the colt tasked with breaking that barren spell in 2024. A Group winner over 7f at two, 1m2f at three, and 1m5½f at four, this son of Australia has gradually stepped up in trip with each passing year but is yet to tackle this distance.
A strong staying victory in the 1m5½f Ormonde Stakes back in May suggested 2m+ may be his forte – so much so that the five-year-old started as the 2/1F in the Yorkshire Cup last time, only to finish a 7½l fifth to Vauban. He appeared to be in trouble too far from home to conclude that a lack of stamina was the issue, but that effort leaves him with a question to answer ahead of this assignment.
4. Sweet William – 15/8
Sweet William also heads to Doncaster from the Newmarket base of the Gosdens and shades favouritism with most firms. Something of a late bloomer, this five-year-old by Sea The Stars raced only three times ahead of his four-year-old campaign but rapidly made up for lost time. Rocketing through the handicapping ranks with three wins and a close second in the Ebor, he produced a career-high when going down by 1¼ to Trueshan in this event.
Unlike a couple of his rivals, Sweet William has performed consistently well this term – finishing in the first three in all four starts (all at Group 3 level or above), including a win in the Henry II Stakes at Sandown. Second to Kyprios in the Goodwood Cup last time, he doesn’t have that rival to contend with here and looks primed to go well.
5. Trueshan – 9/2
At eight years of age, this Alan King inmate is the old man of the field, but his course and distance record is hard to fault. Narrowly denied by Coltrane in the 2022 edition, he put that right last season when winning a prolonged battle with Sweet William.
The mount of Hollie Doyle is yet to hit those heights this season, having finished behind Coltrane in the Sagaro Stakes and Sweet William in both the Henry II Stakes and Goodwood Cup. However, a Listed win at Sandown in July suggests that Father Time may not have reeled him in just yet, and he seems likely to prove popular at a track which suits him well.
6. Wise Eagle – 50/1
The outlier in the field is Wise Eagle, who, unlike the rest, is yet to win in Group company. That stat counts against him, as does the fact he arrives following a lacklustre 16th of 20 performance in the Ebor handicap.
That outing on the Knavesmire extended his losing run to six, but, on a more positive note, he is a dual winner over this 2m2f trip and ran well when second to Coltrane in the 2023 Sagaro Stakes. Such is his smooth travelling style that he may loom up as a threat in the straight, but his overall form (and the 7lb+ rating gap to his rivals) suggest he is up against it in this company.
