"An amazing set of circumstances": Tom Marquand's memories of St Leger breakthrough in 2020

Marquand had no reason to be thinking he would be teaming up with Joseph O’Brien to ride Galileo Chrome in the 2020 running of the St Leger at Doncaster, yet there he was celebrating a momentous occasion.

As if the fact the stands were empty and those with dispensation to be there were wearing face masks was not enough reason to make the afternoon slightly more memorable than it might have been, at the five-day stage before the race, Marquand was all set to be reunited with Ed Walker’s English King.

That episode is a story itself. Marquand rode him to victory in the Lingfield Derby Trial, only to be jocked off in the blue riband for Frankie Dettori. Then at Epsom, English King could finish only fifth, while Marquand was runner-up on 50-1 outsider Khalifa Sat.

Marquand had got the ride back on English King in time for the St Leger, but his camp had a late change of heart and sent him to France for the Grand Prix de Paris, meaning it looked like he would be watching the Leger from the weighing room, with Dettori already in France.

But fate – both good and bad – intervened. Bad for Shane Crosse, O’Brien’s teenage jockey who returned a positive Covid-19 test on his way to Doncaster, prompting connections to move swiftly and secure Marquand.

Marquand takes up the story: “We’d all heard that Shane wasn’t going to be able to come and I remember it pretty well, I was going down to the start on Sacred in the Flying Childers and when I got there Luke Harvey said ‘I hear you’re riding Galileo Chrome tomorrow’, but it was the first I’d heard of it.

“It was a novel way of finding out, that’s for sure! Obviously, I’d lost the ride on English King in the Derby and for the rest of the season, until the St Leger, but then the plans changed and that left me available for the Leger at the last second.

“Shane then tested positive, which meant Joseph didn’t have a jockey and I didn’t have a ride, so we got together. For that to be how my first Classic winner came about, you couldn’t make it up. It was a pretty amazing set of circumstances.

“It was slightly awkward, as at the time Shane hadn’t had a Group One winner and I was very aware that although I was delighted to get my first Classic winner, it was rubbish that Covid had got in the way of Shane riding his. It was nice that just a few weeks later, though, Shane won the Fillies’ Mile on Pretty Gorgeous to get his Group One.”

In the case of Galileo Chrome himself, it was a case of what might have been.

Fifth of 13 on his only outing at two, he won his maiden the following June, a conditions race in July, a Listed race in August and then the Leger. The decision was then made to send him to stud.

“He was a very good horse,” said Marquand. “He was a gorgeous type, even though he won the Leger over a mile and six, he might well have been able to win a mile-and-a-half Group One as well if he had the opportunity to do so. But he went for the St Leger and that meant I won my first Classic!

“I was very lucky to be put aboard on the day. That’s the game we’re in. It’s not much fun but unfortunately it happens, it’s the highs and lows of racing, it’s part of the job.”

The St Leger has had its critics down the years, but the 2020 renewal was right up to standard. Among the beaten horses were a future King George and Coronation Cup winner in Hukum, plus Pyledriver, who won the same two Group Ones, and Subjectivist, a Prix Royal-Oak and Ascot Gold Cup hero.

“The race itself went as smooth as you would have liked,” said Marquand. “He relaxed beautifully.

“Unfortunately, I’m unlikely to be there this year as the times mean it clashes with the Irish Champion Stakes and I’ll hopefully be riding Economics. There was a time you could ride in both. It’s a shame you can’t do it now.”