Dansili colt to try to emulate stablemate Conduit

St Leger entries
Report on St Leger entries

Sir Michael Stoute finally won the St Leger in 2008 with Conduit, having saddled five seconds in the previous 34 years.

Stoute is likely to bid for a second successive Ladbrokes St Leger victory with the twice-raced Harbinger, a 12/1 chance for Classic glory with Ladbrokes, who effortlessly beat Changingoftheguard in a maiden at Chester on May 6.

“I saw Harbinger on Tuesday morning and he looks fantastic,” said Harry Herbert, managing director of the colt’s owners, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing. “He did some half-speed work today (Wednesday) and he’s really doing well physically. At the moment, the plan is to run him in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood at the end of the month and take it one step at a time.

“Coming into the Chester race, he worked very well and both Sir Michael and Ryan Moore were particularly pleased with him. He was very impressive on that occasion and, although it was only a maiden, Sir Michael doesn’t make entries for races like the Ladbrokes St Leger unless he likes the horse very much.

“Harbinger’s on an upward curve and he’s a physical specimen that we can only see improving. He would have run in the King Edward VII Stakes but he had a muscle pull, which forced him to miss a couple of pieces of work.

“Sir Michael tried to get Harbinger ready for Royal Ascot and there was physiotherapy treatment on the muscle but it just kept niggling away at him. It was nothing seriously wrong - just a tight muscle in his quarters - and he’s held in pretty high regard so we didn’t want to risk him.”

Herbert continued: “He’s moving great and really looks terrific at the moment. He’s going to need a few bits of work to get rid of the tummy that he has got from having an easy time but he also seems more rounded in the right places now - he’s much stronger behind the saddle now.

“He’s not guaranteed to get the trip of the Ladbrokes St Leger and he’s a horse with plenty of natural speed, as we saw at Chester when he quickened over a mile and a quarter. We will hopefully see how he gets on in the Gordon Stakes or possibly the Ladbrokes Great Voltigeur Stakes at York and we will learn more about him there.

“It’s a little bit like being in no man’s land at the moment but we feel that the quality of the horse merits an entry in the Ladbrokes St Leger and we will take it one race at a time. He’s got such a great stamp about him and I look at him and think that we have a real chance of being something decent.”

Stoute has a second string to his bow in this year’s Ladbrokes St Leger in the lightly-raced but useful maiden Saptapadi, who like last year’s winner Conduit is owned by Ballymacoll Stud.