Who To Follow On Day One Of The St Leger Meeting - 08/09/21

A nice event on the day at Doncaster is the Listed Scarbrough Stakes over five furlongs and the stand out runner in the race is the Robert Cowell trained Arecibo.

Arecibo was a shock 28/1 runner up at the royal meeting in the King's Stand (5f), going easily 2f out and running on extremely well, but was ultimately left with too much to do on the run in to the line.

That race marked a major step up from handicaps to Group One level for the runner and subsequent runner up and fourth placed finishes at Sandown and Goodwood in Group Three and Group Two races are equally respectable pieces of form given they came over seemingly lesser suited softer ground.

Back in Group One company last time out for the Nunthorpe Stakes he finished a middle of the pack eighth, still showing clear pace and ability.

That form stacks up in a big way dropping back into Listed company and if running to his recent form the 6/4 looks a big price.

John & Thady Gosden will be looking to get on the board early at the final Classic meeting of the season and they seem to have some nice chances to do so.

A really exciting runner for the yard comes in the second race of the day with the full brother of Cracksman, Frantastic making his racecourse debut.

Their big chance of the day comes later on in the card with the Faisal looking to make it four wins in a row and having only been bumped up 3lb for his last run he could be tough to beat.

The Gosden's are heading into the meeting in fine form, currently running at a 26% strike rate for the last few weeks managing to land seven winners from 27 runners.

Ex champion jockey Jim Crowley has a nice book of rides for his retained owner Shadwell Estate on Wednesday which could see him in the winners enclosure.

In the first race of the day he sits on the top weighted Jadhlaan who has some handicap form over six furlongs and the step up to 7f could bring more improvement.

Other nice chances for him include the well bred Israr on debut, Khaadem in the Listed Scarbrough Stakes and Anmaat in the Class 2 Handicap.

Crowley is in superb form heading into the St Leger meeting running at a win rate of 29% for the last fortnight, landing 10 winners from 34 runners.