Great Heavens and Michelangelo lead the Gosden St Leger charge
Published:John Gosden has held the Midas touch in the St Leger for the past two years and it is 9/4 that he completes the hat-trick to upset the Triple Crown bid of Camelot.
Arctic Cosmos and Masked Marvel have done the business for Gosden in recent times at Doncaster and the trainer holds five of the early entries this year in the hope of preventing Camelot adding the St Leger to his prior victories in the 2,000 Guineas and the Epsom Derby.
Gosden is responsible for the three of the main protagonists deemed capable of inflicting a first career defeat on Camelot and there are some doubts as to whether the 2/5 favourite will have the stamina to see out the step up to 1m6f.
Great Heavens seems the pick of his team after her runaway success in the Irish Oaks.
Caught on the inside and dropping back to be virtually last, William Buick eventually got some room and then came with a strong challenge to beat a decent field, which included Epsom Oaks runner-up Shirocco Star and Royal Ascot winner Princess Highway, a shade cosily.
The manner of the success over 1m4f on soft ground, suggests that the St Leger distance should not be a problem and being a Group One winner already, Great Heavens must be considered a threat.
Michelangelo has already won the Cocked Hat Stakes this season and this bodes well as it is same Listed Race that Masked Marvel collected en route to the St Leger.
The remainder of Gosden’s contingent is made up of Shantaram, Thought Worthy and Dartford.
Thought Worthy finished fourth in the Derby behind Camelot and would seemingly need to step up to feature, while Shantaram has chased home Derby second Main Sequence already this season.
Meanwhile, Dartford seems a total no hoper and surely would only be entered to make up the numbers.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
