Honolulu to lead from front

Punters looking for an easy way into the St Leger at Doncaster may want to look no further than the favourite, Honolulu. In the last four runnings of the race, the market leader, or joint market leader has won, and eight of the last ten have ended up in the winner's enclosure. It is a strong indication that this is the sort of race that the bookmakers have become good at predicting, and to be fair, they have had long enough, as the first running of the Classic at Doncaster was in 1779. Aidan O'Brien's leading hope heads the market due to his solid second behind Purple Moon over an extended mile and three-quarters although you have got to wonder whether the Montjeu colt can go through the gears and win at the highest level . Lucarno has been heavily supported in the last week having been tipped by the Racing Post, and John Gosden's hope has attracted bets of £2,000 and £5,000 in the last few days. Gosden has expressed reservations about his colt's ability to last out the stamina taxing 1m6f 132y, and fans of dosage indices (a measurement of a horse's potential to stay a distance based on breeding) will be also sweating as Lucarno's profile only just suggests he will get home. Connections of the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Regal Flush stumped up the £40,000 necessary to get their colt into the line-up, and the son of Sakhee was also heavily supported earlier this week because of the bold move. His two recent handicap wins at Haydock and Goodwood don't look good enough however, and handicappers stepping up to the highest grade have a very poor record in all Group races. Stoute's record in the race hardly inspires confidence either as the training knight has failed to win this contest after 26 years of trying. Surprisingly, maidens do have previous form of winning this race. Richard Quinn was the last jockey to ride a maiden to victory in the St Leger and connections of Samuel, who is trained by John Dunlop, will be hoping that history repeats itself on Town Moor this afternoon. Quinn rode Snurge to his maiden victory in the 1990 renewal of the final Classic, and also teamed up with Dunlop in 2000 to ride Millenary to a three-quarter length success over Air Marshall. Quinn actually has had an enviable record in the race and punters hoping he still has got what it takes should look at his efforts aboard Amanda Perrett's Demophilos in 2001 and The Geezer in 2005, both of whom finished second. Verdict: Verdict: 3pts Honolulu-Samuel straight forecast