Simon Mapletoft's five favourite St Legers

NIJINSKY (1970)

Though I was still settling into primary school when Nijinsky galloped to victory in the world’s oldest Classic in September 1970, his historic success certainly helped hone my burgeoning fascination with this great sport well before I reached my teens.

The remarkable story of his coveted Triple Crown success became folklore around Doncaster as that heady decade gave way to the Eighties, with his jockey Lester Piggott at the height of his legendary powers.

Town Moor was little more than half an hour from my North Nottinghamshire home, close to the South Yorkshire border, so spending a magical afternoon there with dad was a regular treat, peering through the railings to catch a glimpse of Lester, Carson, Mercer, Eddery or Hide.

Some three decades later, that smitten boy found himself sat in the conservatory at Somerville Lodge Stables in Newmarket enjoying a private audience with the greatest jockey of all time for an article I was about to write for a magazine commemorating Doncaster’s re-opening in 2007.

Relaxed and engaging, Lester re-lived that momentous afternoon when Nijinsky became the last colt to pull off the Guineas, Derby and St Leger treble – a victory that was more remarkable than his short odds suggested. For just a month before the race, Vincent O’Brien’s colt came down with a severe bout of ringworm that caused him to lose the gleam off his coat and much of his condition.

Lester hadn’t seen the horse since winning the King George in the summer. He’d been fortified by a diet of raw eggs and Irish stout in a battle to keep his date with destiny but his jockey feared the worst when the big day arrived. “He’d just lost his sparkle. He was quiet and calm, which wasn’t like him,” he told me.

Aware of his fitness scare, his opponents made it a searching test, hoping to expose any flaws in the great colt’s stamina, but Lester kept his cool. “It’s a long straight at Doncaster and I didn’t want to commit too soon,” he recalled. “After the three-furlong marker I asked him to close and 300 yards out we hit the front. There was a big roar from the crowd and we won by about a length but there was nothing left in the tank. Nijinsky had nothing more to give. The race bottomed him.”

DUNFERMLINE (1977)

Lester couldn’t repeat the St Leger feat seven years later but almost won the race in the stewards’ room before the Queen’s marvellous filly Dunfermline was confirmed another historic winner in her majesty’s silver jubilee year.

Willie Carson, who rode the Oaks heroine that day, told me in another interview that “I hadn’t been more nervous before, during or after a horse race than that afternoon on Town Moor. My filly carried the expectation of the whole nation.”

Dick Hern’s stable jockey was fully aware of the magnitude of his task, with Lester on board the brilliant Alleged, who was still unbeaten. “A furlong out I sensed I was going to win but I lost my head,” admitted Carson. “I panicked and went for the whip. Lester was breathing down my neck and he was never a man you wanted to be locked in a battle with in a tight finish.”

“My filly drifted onto Alleged in that frantic race to the line and although we crossed the line first I knew we might be in danger of losing the race in the stewards’ room. Lester could put up a convincing case but what he said to me back in the weighing room did put my mind at rest. ‘Don’t worry Willie, you’ll be alright,’ he muttered in his own inimitable way, and he was right. Dunfermline kept the race.”

Described by Carson as “quite masculine and plain to look at,” Dunfermline was one of Her Majesty’s greatest racehorses. I was at York with my parents when she was undone by a slow pace in the Yorkshire Oaks, finishing third, but she bounced back to her brilliant best in the Leger just a few weeks later.

There were two memorable footnotes to that story – one of them personal. Firstly, Dunfermline was beaten by Piggott and Alleged when they took revenge in the Arc that October but her glorious day on Town Moor was the subject of a retrospective race commentary I recorded to win first prize in a school English competition.

SILVER PATRIARCH (1997)

Few compared to another of my all-time favourite jockeys, the late, great Pat Eddery, whose victory in the 1997 St Leger on Silver Patriarch was of extra special significance. Pat tasted glory on such mighty warriors as Grundy, En Gran Senor, Rainbow Quest, Dancing Brave and Zafonic, but his fourth Leger was his 4,000^th career win.

Silver Patriarch had a score to settle when he arrived on Town Moor having lost out in the Derby at Epsom in a pulsating photo-finish to Benny The Dip, but the extra quarter-mile was tailor-made for John Dunlop’s silver dream machine.

Despite being beaten in the Irish Derby and the Great Voltigeur after Epsom, he justified strong market support to give Pat his momentous success. “It meant so much to me to reach that landmark,” he told me in another privileged interview. “To achieve it in such a high-profile race made it extra special … it was one of the greatest moments of my life.”

French raider Vertical Speed, trained by that little magician Andre Fabre, was his closest market rival after keeping his unbeaten record intact in a Group 2 over slightly further at Maisons-Laffitte. He swept to the front inside the final two furlongs under a confident Olivier Peslier but Eddery had every move covered and won going away.

“I was always confident,” he added. “I had no doubts about getting the trip. I knew he stayed forever. Doncaster is a fair, galloping track that places a strong emphasis on stamina, which suited my horse perfectly. He gave me a great ride and travelled through the race really good. It turned into a bit of a sprint up the long straight but my fellow kept on finding more. He had to battle to get to the front but the further we went, the better he was.”

Ironically, Eddery won the St Leger on France’s Toulon in 1991 in a fast time, beating Saddler’s Hall, who went on to become the sire of Silver Patriarch.

BOLLIN ERIC (2002)

Though I’m not a Yorkshireman, I developed a strong affinity with racing in the white rose county through my near 25 years of television appearances at Doncaster and Ripon and close on a decade of working at the nine tracks as a race day presenter for Go Racing in Yorkshire.

So, shortlisting Yorkshire’s only St Leger winner since Bill Elsey’s Peleid in 1973 didn’t take much pondering, and what a story it was! Bollin Eric was trained by Tim Easterby and ridden by 2000 Champion Jockey Kevin Darley for prominent owner-breeders Sir Neil and Lady Westbrook.

Darley, himself based in Yorkshire, regained the ride on the strapping son of Derby winner Shaamit after Kieren Fallon had finished third on him in that recognised Leger trial, the Great Voltigeur at York. For all his success, Darley had never ridden a Classic winner at that stage but Bollin Eric was about to change the narrative.

Despite failing to win in five creditable starts that year, the colt was sent off a 7-1 chance behind Mark Johnston’s Great Voltigeur hero Bandari, who was understandably a short-priced favourite. However, it was Highclere’s Highest – bidding to give Sir Michael Stoute his elusive first win in the Classic - who chased him home, albeit in vain.

However, Darley gave the trainer palpitations when he took up the running a quarter of a mile from home – a manoeuvre that wasn’t in the plan. “He kicked a long way out and I wasn’t very happy with that,” reported Easterby. “But he did it and put the race to bed and it was a wonderful feeling.”

“We’d trained him hard for the Leger but made sure we’d kept a bit under the locker. He galloped and could stay, but he was fast, too. We worked him over 6f with our champion sprinter Somnus and he worked better than him. On the day the ground came right for him and we were ticking all the boxes. He had it all, really. He was a top, top horse.” 

CONDUIT (2008)

Sir Michael Stoute, one of the greatest trainers of his generation, had endured 25 failed attempts to add the elusive St Leger to his glittering CV but a tough chestnut colt called Conduit changed his fortunes – with a little help from another racing great.

Conduit had won his ‘prep’ race, the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood, under his regular partner Ryan Moore who elected to ride Stoute’s Chester Vase winner and Derby fourth Doctor Fremantle in the race instead, giving Frankie Dettori the chance of a fifth famous Leger cap.

The script certainly wasn’t lost on the Italian who conjured a telling gear change out of the son of Dalakhani to end Sir Michael’s frustrating wait for the longest Classic of them all. Spreadeagling the race’s biggest field since 1982, he had three lengths to spare over Ireland’s Unsung Heroine at the line to spark unprecedented scenes of celebration.

I was privileged to be in front of the camera for Sky Sports Racing’s predecessor At The Races as Dettori flung himself into Sir Michael’s arms and planted the gold cap firmly on his head. It was impossible for the ice cool trainer to keep a lid on his own emotions as his 34-year wait for the Leger crown came to a glorious end. 

In the frenzy of his post-race interview, Dettori quipped: “I said to Michael that he has had Lester Piggott, Willie Carson, Walter Swinburn, Pat Eddery, Steve Cauthen, Kieren Fallon and Ryan Moore so I was the last name on his book and got him out of trouble.”

Conduit went on to claim the glory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita the following month and stayed in training to win the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot en route to a famous follow-up in California. Unsurprisingly, Moore was back on board for all three triumphs.