The Turf | 20 September 2008

What a glorious spectacle it was at Doncaster last Saturday. And no, I don’t mean Frankie Dettori launching himself at Sir Michael Stoute like an exuberant four-year-old vaulting into a parent’s arms for a hug, or even the mildly embarrassed trainer, a bonhomous but stiff-backed bear of a man, wiping off the smacker of a kiss that Frankie gave him later. Those were extra relish. No, I mean the triumph of Conduit, trained by M. Stoute and ridden by F. Dettori, in the last and longest of the English Classics, the 1m 6f St Leger.

For me, St Leger Day at Doncaster is one of the best days out in racing amid one of the liveliest of sporting crowds. But for some years now the St Leger has been the Cinderella Classic. Modern breeding is excessively focused on speed at the expense of stamina, and, some of us suspect, at the expense therefore of the durability of the modern racehorse.