Aidan O'Brien trio out to give Galileo what could be a final British Classic winner

With three leading fancies, and only four others in the Betfred St Leger field, there is every chance the late great Galileo will have a 21st British Classic winner at Doncaster on Saturday. 

It could very possibly be his last. He had only 13 foals in his final crop – two-year-olds of 2024 – and just two of them have run in Britain or Ireland.

Royal Officer cost 1,000,000gns at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale but has finished unplaced in two starts, while Westerberg homebred Gigi Bliss was last of four at Sandown on her debut on Friday.

The Coolmore breed-shaper, who died in the summer of 2021, had his 100th individual top-level winner last month when Content struck in the Yorkshire Oaks. There was a 12-month break between winners 99 and 100, but Illinois, Jan Brueghel or Grosvenor Square would all be a fresh Group 1 winner for their sire on Town Moor, so the gap to number 101 could be a lot shorter.

Illinois, as a brother to Chester Vase winner Venice Beach, half-brother to Arc heroine Danedream, and winner of the Queen’s Vase over the St Leger distance of a mile and six furlongs – since when he has been runner-up in the Grand Prix de Paris and Great Voltigeur – looks equipped on all counts and a worthy favourite.

Jan Brueghel is bred to win a Classic as a brother to Irish Derby hero Sovereign, and this step up in trip should suit him as he needed every yard in the Gordon Stakes over a mile and a half when extending his unbeaten record to three last month.

Grosvenor Square is also related to an Irish Derby winner, Santiago being his half-brother, and like Illinois he is already proven over the St Leger distance having landed the Irish St Leger Trial last month by a whopping 20 lengths.

Their sire has a fascinating record in the St Leger, which he has won with Sixties Icon (2006), Capri (2017) and Kew Gardens (2018), to go with five winners of the Derby and Oaks, four in the 1,000 Guineas and three in the 2,000 Guineas.

Sixties Icon leads home fellow Galileo colts The Last Drop (noseband) and Red Rocks (left, while face) in the 2006 St Leger at YorkCredit: Edward Whitaker

He had five runners the first year he was represented in 2006, when the Classic was staged at York, with Sixties Icon leading home The Last Drop and Red Rocks for a Galileo one-two-three.

Since then he has had 34 more runners, with just Capri and Kew Gardens winning, meaning £1 level-stakes backers have been in the red to the tune of £28.63. 

In total, he has had five runners-up, eight thirds, four fourths and in 2016 an unfortunate unseat. The colt in question, Idaho, was sent off at 4-6 and just about to launch his challenge three furlongs out when he stumbled and unshipped Seamie Heffernan.

The biggest threat to the trio of Aidan O’Brien-trained colts at Doncaster could well come from Galileo's granddaughter, You Got To Me, by his King George-winning son Nathaniel.

The Ralph Beckett-trained filly is herself a Group 1 winner at a mile and a half having landed the Irish Oaks, although her Newsells Park Stud sire has done no better than sixth place from three runners in the St Leger.

Sunway will be Galiway’s debut runner in the world’s oldest Classic, and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise were the Haras de Colleville sire to strike at the first time of asking.

The David Menuisier-trained colt is a brother to Champion Stakes winner Sealiway and a Group 1 winner himself, having landed the Criterium International last autumn. He has yet to run over the trip, however, and is not a guaranteed stayer on form or pedigree.

Deira Mile is by Coolmore’s Camelot, probably one of the most famous names to have contested the St Leger in recent times, certainly from the ranks of non-winners.

In 2012 he was bidding to become the first Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky in 1970, but failed by three-quarters of a length to reel in 25-1 chance Encke, The Mahmood Al Zarooni-trained winner passed a post-race drugs test, but subsequently tested positive for anabolic steroids.

Camelot has had no more St Leger luck as a sire than he did as a racehorse, with six runners yielding no better than a fourth place.

Deira Mile, out of a Fastnet Rock mare, is another yet to run beyond a mile and a half and whose pedigree is not a positive pointer to him relishing this trip.

Wild Waves’ Coolmore National Hunt sire Crystal Ocean was second in the St Leger to one of Galileo’s winners, Capri.

His unraced dam is a half-sister to German Group 1 winners Guignol and Guiliani, while Wild Waves is already a winner over course and distance.

The outsider of the field scores well on pedigree and stamina – it’s just the class side that lets him down as he has yet to contest a stakes race.

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