2011 St. Leger Stakes - The Locks

Saturday, we have the third leg of the English Triple Crown, the St. Leger Stakes.   The race is a grueling 14 furlongs or 1 3/4 miles and is raced at Doncaster.   As monster horse, Frankel won the 2,000 Guineas and recently retired, Pour Moi won the Epsom Derby, there is certainly no Triple Crown on the line on Saturday.  No horse has won or even fully competed for the Triple Crown since Nijinsky pulled off the unlikely trifecta in 1970.  



The owners of the field are quite interesting...

• Brown Panther 14-1 is owned by once soccer star Michael Owen.....hmmm I guess he is still in the league playing for that collective group of losers called Man U or as I like to say sometimes, Girl U.
• Buthelezi 100-1 is owned by Princess Haya of Jordan
• Seville 10-1 is owned by former bookie now billionaire, Michael Tabor and Coolmore Stud
• Sea Moon 2-1 is owned by Saudi Prince Khalid Abudulla's Juddmonte racing operations
• Blue Bunting 7-2, Genius Beast 50-1, & Ruhm 200-1 are owned by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin racing stable

While the two horses I find the most intriguing (from a betting standpoint) have more ordinary owners, Census 6-1 is owned by a syndicate where you can get into ownership at around $10,000 while Masked Marvel 7-1 is owned by Bjorn Nielsen, a Greenwich CT private equity guy with Anglo roots.

Census and Masked Marvel are the only horses in field with wins over 12 furlongs.  Census has not been worse than 2nd since its maiden race and has jock Richard Hughes in the saddle.   Census and Masked Marvel both have to use their speed tactically.  The 2 favorites Sea Moon and Blue Bunting will come off the pace and will be aided by the addition of rabbit Ruhm in the field.  If Census and MM can let Ruhm run herself out, they may be able to hold off the favorites.

The Locks are:
$10 Win Census
$1 Exacta All over Census
$2 Exacta Census, MM, SM, BB
$5 WP Masked Marvel

Good Luck!!