Leading Light will look to pass stamina test by adding Paris triumph to St Leger

Co-owner John Magnier told the Yorkshire Post that the three-year-old is likely to be supplemented at a cost of around £100,000 for the celebrated Longchamp race on October 6 after winning the £340,000 first prize on Town Moor, and availing himself of the benevolent odds offered by the sponsors that led to Leading Light being backed into 7-2 favouritism.

Arguably the most influential owner-breeder in global racing thanks to the links between his Coolmore stud and Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stables, where Leading Light is trained, the 65-year-old tycoon has history in his sights.

It still hurts him that Camelot was beaten in the St Leger 12 months ago when the colt tried – and failed – to become the first horse since Nijinksy to win the fabled Triple Crown, while an audacious tilt at the Arc would demonstrate his ambitions. “Why not?” he said in the Doncaster winner’s enclosure.

Magnier’s boldness was endorsed by O’Brien who was winning the St Leger for a fourth time.

He said a final decision would be taken this week.

The same view was offered by the trainer’s son Joseph who was winning the one-and-three-quarter mile race for the first time after riding Leading Light prominently to make the most of the horse’s stamina; he had not raced since winning the Queen’s Vase over two miles at Royal Ascot.

“I suppose this makes it a little bit sweeter after last year, but there’s nothing I can do about that now and you have to look forward,” said the 20-year-old rider.

“I don’t see why he shouldn’t go for the Arc. He races quite lazily and even though he’s won over a mile and six, and over two in Ascot, he doesn’t need to go that far. I’d have no trouble dropping him back to a mile and a half.”

The size of the Arc challenge is still a daunting one – just three weeks separate these two races that are real tests of stamina.

User Friendly, George Duffield’s runaway St Leger winner in 1992, was beaten by a neck by Subotica in France. Conversely the Lester Piggott-ridden Alleged overcame Doncaster defeat in 1977 to the Queen’s Dunfermline to win back-to-back renewals of the Arc.

That the Coolmore and Ballydoyle team have such lofty ambitions is a significant vote of confidence in the future of the 
St Leger after it emerged that next year’s renewal of the world’s oldest Classic will clash with a new champions weekend in Ireland.

Even though Saturday’s attendance of 29,275 racegoers was 2,000 down on last year when Camelot raced for his place in immortality, the total crowd at the four-day meeting was 60,025 people – nearly 1,500 up on last year. This is one of the highlights of the South Yorkshire social calendar; Saturday saw the aforementioned O’Brien accosted by a hen party after he had walked the track prior to the St Leger while it took betting pundit John McCririck five matches to light an extra-large cigar.

“We are delighted,” said Doncaster managing director Mark Spincer.

“Last year was a record four-day total for us, and to beat that without a Triple Crown horse is testament to the hard work of the whole team.”