Doncaster St Leger Meeting Tips: Day one with Graham Cunnigham

Events / Graham Cunningham / 08 September 2009 /

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"On the whole I tend to avoid getting too heavily involved with fancied horses who ran well below par on their latest start, but it might pay to make an exception for Twice Over in the Frenchgate Conditions Stakes at 3.10."

Doncaster tend to save the best until last in St Leger week nowadays, but day one of a four-day fixture offers several good races and Racing UK analyst Graham Cunningham feels Dandy Nicholls is the man to follow in the day's big sprint.

Inxile looks a fair choice for the Scarbrough

The worst thing you can do in a distance race is go too hard too early.

Doncaster's four day St Leger meeting gets under way this Wednesday, but day one is a low key affair and the best advice is to take things steadily.

That said, at least two races warrant a second look and Inxile could prove the headline act when he bids to concede weight all round in the DFS Scarbrough Stakes at 3.45.

Regal Parade shot to the head of the Dandy Nicholls sprint parade with his Group 1 win at Haydock last weekend, but Inxile isn't far behind him and the way he travelled for a long way when third in the King George Stakes at Goodwood was impressive.

Dandy Man looms large among the dangers after his Leicester win, while it will be fascinating to see how the juvenile Above Limits fares in receipt of a massive weight concession, but Inxile is a proven force at this level and a 3lb penalty looks unlikely to stop him going very close indeed.

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Twice looks well worth the once over in the Frenchgate

On the whole I tend to avoid getting too heavily involved with fancied horses who ran well below par on their latest start, but it might pay to make an exception for Twice Over in the Frenchgate Conditions Stakes at 3.10.

Henry Cecil's colt plainly wasn't himself against stellar rivals in the Eclipse in July, but his earlier efforts at Ascot and Newbury prove beyond doubt that he has trained on very well from three to four.

A nine-week break ought to have given him ample time to recover from whatever ailed him at Sandown and, along with the unexposed Gitano Hernando, he looks by far the most interesting member of this sextet.

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Malton tragedy leaves racing a poorer place

My son Gabriel celebrates his 15th birthday today.

In my eyes and those of his Mum he's still a mere baby, but in reality he's not far from going out into the real world to fend for himself.

That's what Jamie Kyne and Jan Wilson did and the loss of the two innocent teenagers in a fatal blaze last weekend has left a dark cloud over racing.

Unlike my RUK colleague Tom O'Ryan - who wrote such a heartfelt piece in Monday's Racing Post - I didn't know Jamie Kyne.

But I did see him in action in the north on a regular basis and every time he walked into the paddock I marvelled at how such a baby faced kid could possibly control powerful thoroughbreds with minds of their own.

Saturday's tragic event can never be undone, but the rest of us need to take something positive from it if at all possible.

I haven't been able to look at my son since without thinking of Jamie and Jan. Their loss makes me want to be a better dad to my lad. Just in case.

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