Pyledriver can complete fairytale rise in St Leger says trainer William Muir

WILLIAM Muir is confident Pyledriver – the horse no one wanted to buy before turning the form book upside down – is at the top of his game for the Pertemps St Leger at Doncaster.

The colt has made such giant strides this year for the unfashionable trainer and disputes big race favouritism with the Aidan O’Brien-trained Irish Derby winner Santiago for the season’s final Classic on Saturday.

Muir acknowledges success on Town Moor would be a huge achievement for his small team during a time when, more often than not, the top prizes go to the bigger yards.

He said: “There’s a great mood in the camp. We have seven staff riding out, three staff in the yard, the staff in the office and me. It’s a small team, and everyone is delighted.

“We have about 26 horses. We’re not a fashionable yard - everyone wants somebody younger and more fashionable. It’s just one of those things, but if this horse could go and win on Saturday it would be fantastic for the whole team and everyone around it.”

A surprise win in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot was followed by a luckless run in the Derby at Epsom under Muir’s son-in-law Martin Dwyer, the colt’s regular rider. However Pyledriver subsequently gave weight and a sound beating to his rivals when landing the Great Voltigeur Stakes, a noted St Leger trial, at York.

Muir revealed the colt’s owners have received “life-changing” offers to sell over the course of the summer, but have so far resisted all potential buyers for a horse who did not even meet his reserve of £10,000 when sent to the sales as a foal.

“Anybody can come into this game, go out with a relatively small amount of money and you can find these good horses. They’re hard to come by, but you can find them,” Muir went on.

“The owners have turned down some big offers. If the offers had been accepted I don’t think he would have stayed in this country - places like Australia and Hong Kong wanted him really badly.

“If one person had owned him, you couldn’t have said no to the kind of offers we got - it was life-changing money - but there’s three of them, and they wanted to keep him.”

The Lambourn trainer insists he could not be happier with his stable star ahead of a race that is part of the 2020 Qipco British Champions Series - and he is optimistic the son of unbeaten sprinter Harbour Watch will stay the trip of a mile and three-quarters.

“He’s in great order and has done all the work he needs to do. As long as he stays like this for the rest of the week, I couldn’t be taking him there in better shape,” added Muir.

“I’ve always been a glass-half-full kind of person - my glass is always overflowing, to be fair. I think he will stay and I think we’ve got a great chance, but it is a horse race. I thought we had a great chance in the Derby, and it all went wrong, but you shake yourself down and go again.”

Pyledriver was one of 15 horses left in the St Leger at the confirmation stage. As well as Santiago, Aidan O’Brien may be represented by Dawn Patrol, Mythical and Tiger Moth as he seeks a seventh St Leger while his son Joseph could saddle the progressive Galileo Chrome.

Other leading hopes include the Owen Burrows-trained Hukum, Ed Walker’s English King and Mark Johnston’s Subjectivist. The sole Yorkshire runner, Subjectivist was a runaway winner at Goodwood on his last start.