St Leger Betting: Blue Bunting in search of Triple Crown (of sorts)

Ante-post / Joe Szekeres / 03 September 2011 / Leave a Comment

Blue Bunting is the value pick given her form in Group 1 company already this season

"A dual-classic winner in her own right, Blue Bunting will be going for a 'Triple Crown' of sorts in the St Leger having already landed the English 1000 Guineas and the Irish Oaks."

With a week to go until the final classic of the British Flat season at Doncaster, Timeform look ahead to the St Leger, where Blue Bunting will attempt to complete her own Triple Crown...

Sir Michael Stoute finally laid his St Leger hoodoo to rest when Conduit won in 2008 and the the Freemason Lodge handler has another in hands this year who looks capable of landing the season's final classic in the shape of Sea Moon. Sea Moon has quickly developed into a high-class performer, culminating in an eight-length runaway win in the Great Voltigeur Stakes just last month, and currently trades at around [2.66]. He hails from an excellent family, related to the likes of 2003 Leger winner Brian Boru and out of a Park Hill winner, so he really should relish the step up to fourteen furlongs, backed up by the way he's been shaping.

Sea Moon won a maiden at the second time of asking towards the tail end of last season, and though he took an age to come to hand this year, forcing him to miss the Derby (for which he had long been prominent in the betting), he made a successful return in a handicap at York just a week after Epsom.

Sea Moon returned to York two months later for the Voltigeur, in which he was up against the likes of Aidan O'Brien's Irish Derby runner-up Seville [10.0], and in running out such an impressive winner, admittedly in a race where the Ballydoyle colt underperformed in third, he marked himself as Timeform's leading middle-distance three-year-old of 2011, ahead of the likes of Nathaniel, Pour Moi and Treasure Beach, in a season where the classic generation have been so very dominant.

Sea Moon was stepping up to a mile and a half for the very first time at York and the extra distance allowed him to travel far more smoothly before he quickened clear two furlongs out, staying on powerfully to the line to rout a field of smart opponents. Sea Moon, who will be ridden by Olivier Peslier at Doncaster, is still relatively lightly raced and unexposed, having had just the four racecourse starts, and everything points to him developing even further.

Mahmood Al Zarooni's Blue Bunting currently stands second in the market and is available to back at a price of [5.4]. A dual-classic winner in her own right, Blue Bunting will be going for a 'Triple Crown' of sorts in the St Leger having already landed the English 1000 Guineas and the Irish Oaks.

Her only defeat since second on her debut came when left with too much to do in the Oaks at Epsom, in an unsuitably slowly-run race, and she reversed form with her conqueror that day, Dancing Rain, in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh next time, forced to switch markedly wide over a furlong out before delivering a late challenge to beat Banimpire a short head.

Blue Bunting has had just the one race since the Irish Oaks, in which she took on and defeated the older generation in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks. With a pacemaker employed, Blue Bunting had the race run to suit, but she again underlined that stamina is her forte as she battled all the way to the line to beat Vita Nova by one and a quarter lengths. She heads to Doncaster on an upward curve and looks a value win-and-place alternative to the favourite.

Of the remaining market principals, Census, currently trading at [6.0], arguably holds the greatest chance, having won the Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury last time out, beating fellow St Leger entrant Brown Panther [15.0] by one and a quarter lengths.

That was the second time the pair had met this season, with Brown Panther running out an emphatic six-lengths winner over the Richard Hannon-trained colt at Royal Ascot back in June. Census was arguably unlucky in defeat to Brown Panther at Ascot, having met trouble in-running, and though he more made up for it at Newbury, it could, equally, be argued that the waiting tactics employed on Brown Panther in the Geoffrey Freer were overdone, with his very best work coming at the finish after Census had gained first run. It is currently one apiece between these two smart performers, and it is difficult to choose between them.

Another worth a mention is the John Gosden-trained Masked Marvel [10.0]. Since finishing down the field in the Derby, Masked Marvel has defeated the aforementioned Census by a head in the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket over thirteen furlongs, and given his trainer's recent record in the Leger, winning it in 2007 with Lucarno and last year with Arctic Cosmos, he can't be overlooked.

This season's St Leger seems to be an above-average renewal with the best middle-distance filly and colt of the classic generation both lining up. Sea Moon's eight-length win in the Great Voltigeur was extremely impressive and it's easy to see why he's favourite, but one has to remember a similar performance in that race last year by Rewilding who went on to lose the St Leger at similarly short odds. Blue Bunting, on the other hand, is much more appealing at the prices, and heads to Doncaster as a triple Group 1 winner who should relish the test.

Recommendations

Back Blue Bunting to win @ [5.4] and to place @ [2.0] in the St Leger at Doncaster on Saturday