talkSPORT betting tips – Best bets and expert advice for Doncaster’s St Leger Festival – Day four
The final day of the St Leger meeting rounds off one of Yorkshire's biggest meetings with a strong day of action from Doncaster.
The feature ra🏅ce is the Group 3 Sceptre Stakes for fillies and mares at ♓3.15. There are also a host of competitive handicaps, plus the unique Leger Legends race in which famous ex-jockeys battle it out.
Our exp✃ert, Clive Gildon, has a trio of selections for the ITV races at Doncaster, including one in the featureﷺ.
Racing tips
- 14:05 Doncaster - Badri @ 13/2
- 15:15 Doncaster - Topanga @ 12/1
- 16:15 Doncaster - Silver Samurai @ 10/1
14:05 Doncaster - Badri
Venture Capital is a deserving favourite for this race. He has the right profile as an improving th🅰ree-year-old whose form last time is working out favourably.
It is much more likely that Badri will be underbet. This horse is dropping in grade and has not been running badly at a high🐲er level, so he looks poised to strike from a mark of 88. He has won each of his last two handicaps when𝔍 he has run off a mark in the 80s.
In August, Badri chased home Jordan Electrics at Hamilton when that horse broke the track record. He has si🌠nce run with credi🌠t in good races, most recently at Ascot when he was fourth to Woolhampton.
Badri has run only twice at Doncaster, withouꦑt troubling the judge. However, one of those runs was in the Portland, a fiendishly competitive race. The other was over six furlongs, when he has always been that bit more potent when able to attack late on over five. He will get that chance on Sunday.
15:15 Doncaster - Topanga
The൲ Sceptre Stakes is not a strong Group 3, even allowing for it being restricted to fillies and mares. It is ripe for a young improver to usurp those with the established form, and even those are thin on the ground.
Topanga stands out as one to take the initiative. She started brightly at two but too♕k a long time to get g🅷oing as a three-year-old. She has got there on recent starts. She won at Haydock in July, finished a luckless third at Chester and then landed a Listed race in Germany last time.
That day at Baden Baden, Topanga was favourite so it may be argued that she did not need to improve. That argument gets a lot harder to sustain when con🐻sidering she won by more than three lengths, from a horse who had won at the same level on her previous run.
A double-figure 🥃price looks to seriously underestimate Topanga, who deserves to be up with the market principals, whose form she will match soon enough the way she is gꦗoing.
16:15 Doncaster - Silver Samurai
A bit like Saturday's Portland, which splits the difference between five and six furlongs, this race gives sprinters and seven-furlong horses a chance to compete on theoretically equal terms.
In practice, the out-and-out seven-furlong types tend to struggle to keep up. What you want here is a sprinter that hits the line hard. That is part of the reason Orazio is favourite, being strong at the finish over six is his part🧔y piece. There is a suspicion he will act just the same at this distance.
The bet is Silver Samurai. He won over seven furlongs at this track ♑in June. However, taking his career as a whole he has been most effective given a good pace to run at over six. He will get that here, and his excelle🥀nt course record (2-2) is another feather in his cap.
*all odds correct at time of writing and subject to change
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