Gosden’s duo look to thwart Camelot’s Triple Crown bid

Personal glory is also on the line – victory for the odds-on favourite, who is looking to land Flat racing’s iconic 2000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and St Leger treble – will see O’Brien, the quietly-spoken, modest County Tipperary trainer, become the first man to land all five English Classics in a calendar year.

Camelot is said to have bulked up since powering through bottomless and near unraceable ground to land the Irish St Leger in late June and stretch his unbeaten record to five races.

However, today’s one-and-three-quarter mile stamina test will see the horse, ridden by the trainer’s teenage son Joseph, racing into the unknown.

“We think Camelot is like no other horse. Who knows what is going to happen – we don’t take anything for granted,” said O’Brien.

“We’ve had great horses all through the years and you always hope something different will come along again and then when Camelot arrived it was just incredible. He’s an incredible talent. One of those very special horses, one that only comes once in a lifetime.”

This will not be a one-horse race. John Gosden, attempting to win a third successive St Leger, has two solid contenders with York winner Thought Worthy – the mount of stable jockey William Buick – and Frankie Dettori’s mount Michelangelo.

Both will benefit from Gosden’s pacemaker Dartford, tasked with exposing any chinks in the favourite’s stamina.

“Thought Worthy is the horse who won the main Leger trial, ran well in the Derby and in the King Edward at Royal Ascot so he’s the form horse. But Michelangelo has done very little wrong,” said Buick who is looking to become the first jockey to win three successive 
St Legers since Nijinksy’s rider Lester Piggott completed a hat-trick in the early 1970s.

Cancer-stricken Sir Henry Cecil saddles Thomas Chippendale for Yorkshire businessman Sir Robert Ogden while the form of Guarantee, co-owned by former Tory leader Michael Howard and the mount of Thirsk’s Phil Makin, was franked when Mark Johnston’s Sir Graham Wade landed the Ladbrokes Mallard Stakes yesterday.

When Guarantee, trained by proud Yorkshireman William Haggas, won the Melrose Stakes at York’s Ebor festival, Sir Graham Wade was more than 20 lengths in arrears. “I’m looking forward to it,” said Makin ahead of his first Classic ride.

Last night, there were still limited tickets available for the Grandstand and Family Enclosure as Doncaster anticipates a 30,000-plus crowd, vindicating the decision of Ladbrokes to take over the St Leger sponsorship in 2005 in order to reinvigorate the world’s oldest Classic.

A Triple Crown victory for Camelot will achieve just that – especially as O’Brien says the best may still to be come from his equine one-off.

More racing: Pages 8-10.