Flat Season Showdown

The first weekend of September is one of tradition for sports fans. If you're Irish, contingent on your disposition, you are either making your way to Croke Park for an All-Ireland Hurling final or making your way to the leafy suburbs of Foxrock and Leopardstown racecourse for the Irish Champion Stakes.

Not to be outdone by their Irish counterparts, English racing fans also have a race of considerable significance this very same weekend, in the shape of the Doncaster St Leger, the oldest of the English classics and the last of five classics held throughout the season.

Irish Champion Stakes

The Irish Champion Stakes has, for a number of years, been the pinnacle end-of-season championship race for middle-distance performers, and the roll of honour in recent years reads like a who's who of top-class racecourses. You can stretch as far back as 1984 to see Sadler's Wells on the winners list. In recent years, Dylan Thomas, Oratorio, Azamour, High Chaparral, Fantastic Light, Giant's Causeway, and Daylami rank amongst the victors.

Unsurprisingly, the race seems to be dominated by a select group of trainers. Aidan O'Brien and his all-conquering Ballydoyle training operation lead the list of top trainers, followed closely by Saeed BinSuroor and the Godolphin operation, whilst Sir Michael Stoute and John Oxx also rank highly. In fact, between the four of them, they account for the last 12 winners and 13 of the last 14.

The story of this year's race looks no different, with Aidan O'Brien looking to have a stranglehold on the event. He has a host of horses to choose from for this event, but his main contender looks certain to be the much improved Duke of Marmalade, who seems to relish the intermediate trip of 10 furlongs. With three Group One victories to his name this season, including a commanding performance in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot, finding one to oppose him looks difficult, and may even prove to be a futile exercise.

However, Jim Bolger, a man not known for bowing to tradition and statistics, looks certain to aim his stable star and Derby winner, New Approach, at this race. A champion 2-year-old who had the speed to finish runner-up in two Guineas before showing the stamina and guts required to claim the Epsom Derby, he looks certain to be suited for the intermediate distance of this race, and for the first time in years, we may see a changing of the guard in the winning-trainer bracket after this race.

Doncaster St Leger

Whilst in Dublin, you can expect to see a great battle of the generations, as across the pond in Doncaster, the late-maturing types will be having their own battle - that for the crown of the final classic of 2008, the Group One St Leger Stakes.

Despite his domination of the English racing landscape and his host of classic victors, the St Leger is the only classic to have eluded Sir Michael Stoute. As is typical of his stable and what would be classed as his typical horse, Stoute frequently has an abundance of late-maturing 3-year-old colts for this race. Despite continuously seeming to have a smattering of genuine contenders for the race, they have so far come up short.

This may be the year of change, though, for the all-conquering stable, as it genuinely appears to have a stranglehold on the race. With a choice of up to five strong candidates, Stoute looks likely to rest the stable's hopes upon both Patkai and Doctor Fremantle. With an embarrassment of riches in the 3-year-old staying section of his stable, his decision to rest his hopes upon these two looks certain to be vindicated.

Having won an ordinary back-end 2-year-old maiden in Nottingham, and followed it up with a less than inspiring return to action over 10 furlongs in Newbury last April, Patkai has since been revolutionised by a step up in trip. Having shaped with great promise at Chester's May meeting, where he was far from comfortable on the camber of the track, he has since secured two breathtaking victories over 12 and 16 furlongs, respectively.

Any concerns that he may struggle with the one-mile six-furlong trip of the St Leger were dispelled at Royal Ascot, when he ran away with the Group Three Queen's Vase in the same fashion as the dish that ran away with the spoon!

In contrast to Patkai, Doctor Fremantle has taken the tried-and-tested route to the St Leger, that of having raced in the Derby, where he finished a gallant fourth behind New Approach. Previous to that, he was successful in the Chester Vase, and a glance back at his 2-year-old form shows that he met with defeat by the Oaks heroine Look Here. Having kept himself in good company, the St Leger is the obvious target, and whilst he has not had the same air of excitement surrounding him that has been afforded to his stablemate, it should not take from his very obvious chance in this race.

Being a homebred from the Juddmonte Farm operation of Khalid Abdulla and racing in his colours, a cursory glance at his pedigree suggests that it is not a simple case of him being built for the St Leger, but that the St Leger was built for him. His pedigree has a strong staying influence, being by Sadler's Wells out of a Rainbow Quest mare, who herself was a mile winner at 2-year-old, when many will have cried enough toward the final assault of the winning line, this chap will be relishing the challenge and rattling home in good fashion. Despite not being the better-fancied stablemate, he is the one upon whom I would rest my hopes of securing victory.

As has become a common feature in these columns, I must pinpoint the Aidan O'Brien-trained Irish Derby winner Frozen Fire as the challenger to worry the Stoute stable most in this race. This German-bred son of the classy stayer Montjeu has taken his time to mature into the horse he has promised to be, and with the recent momentum he has gained from tackling extended trips, it is not beyond reason that he may provide the Ballydoyle stable with yet another classic winner in the 2008 season.