Sea Moon Favoured Amongst 17 in St Leger

We have just had the field for the 2011 St Leger at Doncaster cut down to a mere 17 runners with many of the longer-term contenders remaining in the mix for this one. The premier staying race on the English calendar, the Doncaster classic looks set to provide another fantastic iteration this year. A lightly-raced Juddmonte-bred is dominating the market in the build-up to this one but the tricky field might make a short price look a little less enticing.

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Sea Moon, a three-year-old son of Beat Hollow, is trained by Sir Michael Stoute and owned by Khalid Adbullah. He made a major declaration when conquering the Group 2 Great Voltigeur stakes by an incredible eight lengths during the Ebor meeting. Sent off on the day at an 11/2 price tag, he earned a 103 rating with Richard Hughes taking the mount for the first time.

With only four career races under his belt, and a single group-level clash to his credit, some punters are openly questioning the logic of pricing him as low as evens – which several bookmakers have done. There is a lot that can go wrong over 1m6f and a bit, and with so many other contenders in the mix for this classic, you can expect this one to be a wild in-play market.

Sea Moon performed admirably in the Great Voltigeur but with an extra two and a half furlongs to work with here, he may not be able to deploy his traditional preferred running style. He came on quite late last time to dominate over the final 2f and pull ahead – a visually stunning move but one that you could pull off when contending with a gaggle of tired horses.

There will be a few coming back for revenge here with Seville chief among them. He was sent off as the slim 5/6 favourite in the Great Voltigeur and finished a well-beaten third. Namibian will also return for this one and both of them trade at reasonable prices.

The genuine threat appears to be Godolphin's upstart filly Blue Bunting. The 1000 Guineas winner has only one genuine blemish on her record and that's really the result of a tough trip in the Epsom Oaks. Winner of the Darley Irish Oaks at 1m4f, she should not struggle with the distance and you know that she's going to take money with Dettori in the irons. Look for her around 5/1.