It's Day One of the St Leger Festival At Doncaster on Thursday 11th September, kicking off four days of action at the Yorkshire track.
Day One sees nursery handicaps for the juveniles and Group Two action for the older horses, with the feature race The Park Hill Stakes. We've taken a look at all five races live on ITV to pick out our tips and selections for the afternoon.
Rogue Temptation 10/1
Showed promise on debut over 5 furlongs at York but took a step forward when winning a novice event over 6 furlongs at Haydock.
Was only narrowly denied in a strong looking novice event at Ripon last time out, finishing a dead heated 2nd. The winner and joint 2nd from that race both shaped well in the Lowther Stakes recently giving the form a bit of substance.
Switches to nurseries now and looks well enough treated off a mark of 81 to have a big say.
Jel Pepper 7/2
Gets a massive amount of weight from his main market rival in the shape of Brussels, who looks like he wants more of a stamina test rather than this drop in trip and finished behind the selection at Newmarket off of level weights the July Stakes.
Carries a nice low racing weight of 8st8lbs for this and ran well again in a similar contest in Ireland to be 4th.
Looks too well treated in the weights to not be having a good say in this.
Moon Target 7/4
It’s worth giving Moon Target another chance despite her defeat at Goodwood last time out when tackling group company for the first time.
She looked a filly to keep onside when winning easily on debut at Newmarket before defying a penalty to win a novice event at Yarmouth with bundles in hand. Beaten by Precise at Goodwood, she looked awkward on the camber of the track and failed to make up enough ground to reel in the better positioned winner.
Up to 1 mile should suit her and this more conventional flat track will play more to her strengths. The one to beat.
Danielle 11/4
Danielle sets a clear standard at the top of the market for the Park Hill Stakes off the back of her narrow defeat in the Lillie Langtry at Glorious Goodwood. If it hadn’t been her first outing of the season she may well have gotten the better of Waardah too.
The step up in trip looked to have unlocked a bit of improvement in the daughter of Cracksman and with there not looking to be a real hot pace on here, her turn of foot should come into play in the later stages of the race.
Shaped well at Goodwood despite coming off a long lay off and she’ll strip fitter and sharper now she’s had that comeback run. Rated 4lbs clear at the top of the market she should be hard to beat.
Castle Stuart 13/2
Only seen three times since season for connections, Castle Stuart has shaped well on all of his runs to be in the first three home each time.
Running ok to be 3rd on seasonal comeback before winning over 9 furlongs at Musselburgh. Upped in trip again for the Steve Birch Finale Handicap at York last time out, it’s one of the strongest pieces of handicap form on offer in this field and he’s been leniently treated by the assessor only raised 1lbs.
Doesn’t mind some dig in the ground and can get right in the mix again back against his own age group.
Below we've complied the best bookmaker Free Bet offers for the 4 day St Leger Festival at Doncaster for this week.
Other specific tips available include:
