talkSPORT betting tips – Best bets and expert advice for Doncaster’s St Leger Festival – Day One
Day oꦑne of the 2024ཧ St Leger meeting at Doncaster takes place on Thursday, with the Group action starting straight away.
The card is primarily built around races for two-year-olds, with the May Hill Stakes for൩ fillies often providing Classic clues for next spring and the Weatherbys Scientific £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes provi൩ding a big prize pot to aim at.
Our expert, Clive Gildon, has a trio of selection♊s on the ITV races at Doncaster, including in both Group 2s.
Racing tips
- 14:25 Doncaster - Intrusively @
- 15:00 Doncaster - Desert Flower @
- 15:35 Doncaster - Mistral Star @
14:25 Doncaster - Intrusively
Coming into the Richmond Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, Intrusively was still a maiden after three runs. He was duly sent off at big odds but showed that he belonged at that level when finishing a close third despite coming unbalanced on Goodwood's undulations.
On the back of that run, Intrusively 🐠went to Nottingham, which was a relatively simple task and he justified short odds to strike. He is best judged on his Goodwood run and it is worth noting that in the Richmond it looked like a slightly stiffer test of stamina would suit him, something꧙ which Doncaster provides.
Int𝄹rusively will come out of stall three, which coincidentally has provided the winner of this big-field race in three of the last seven years. That aside, lower-drawn horses have generally done better than those high. Intrusively has a lot in his favour.
15:00 Doncaster - Desert Flower
The May Hill Stakes has been won in recent years by smart fillies like Inspiral and Laurens. Attempting to join that illustrious list is Desert Flower🎀, who has create🐼d a strong impression at a lower level.
On her debut at Newmarket🐟, Desert Flower ran out a convincing winner over Flight, who won her next start by four lengths, before the selection was even more impressive on her next outing when defying a penalty to win by more than six leng🎃ths off a slow pace.
That shows Desert Flower is ready for this level. She is also moving up in distance, which is not necessarily going to draw out more improvement, but she🌞 is bred to stay this far as both her sire and dam were milers.
Talking of pedigree, Desert Flower's year-older half-brother Aablan was a Group race winner at two last year in the Solario Stakes. Desert Flower can follow him in achieving a win at this level as a juvenile.
15:35 Doncaster - Mistral Star
This has been a season of relentless progress for the Hughie Morrison-trained Mistral Star. After a strong finish to 2023, she was fifth in a Listed race on her first run oꩲf the season and third in a Group 3 in June.
Since then she has really come on, winning a Listed race at Newmarket by a wide margin and finishing fourth in the Group 1 Yorkshire 📖Oaks at York last time out.
Mistral Star is bred to be a smart middle-distance type. By Frankel, she is closely related to Telecaster, who waꦚs himself something of a late developer. She ought to suit this slightly longer trip and needs to be high on the shortlist.
*all odds correct at time of writing and subject to change
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