St Leger
Spread bettors have come to love the flying Italian whenever he turns up at Town Moor and he will be going for his sixth win in the race with Rewilding. Horse racing spread betting fans may be surprised that only one of his wins has come for Saeed bin Suroor, but Godolphin's main trainer has also won the race five times, including last year when Ted Durcan brought Mastery home in front of stablemate Kite Wood. Frankie has actually won three of the last five runnings, so there will be plenty of spread bettors hoping to see another flying dismount on Saturday afternoon.
Aidan O'Brien is bang in form at the moment and spread punters following any of the Ballydoyle runners will be encouraged that the maestro has won the race three times since 2001. He looks set to rely on Midas Touch and Joshua Tree this time and based on their Great Voltigeur run there shouldn't be too much separating them on the Sporting Index win index.
Prior to 2008 the SP spread sellers had been bossing this race with six of the previous nine favourites winning. However, Conduit, at 8/1 two years ago, and Mastery, at 14/1 last year, have given buyers a bit more to shout about. There seems little doubt that Rewilding will go off at the top of the win index after his comfortable victory in the Voltigeur. If the betting public really get behind him, he could go off pretty close to evens and spread sellers will be praying that the jollies can get back to winning ways.
The weather at this time of the year is always a crucial factor for punters to consider before finalising their spread bets. The ground has ranged from heavy to good-to-firm in the past five St Legers, which can obviously have a major impact on the winning distance spread markets. Mastery was successful by three quarters of a length 12 months ago, while Conduit won by three lengths in 2008. Generally this race has not been won by wide margins in recent years, though, as Milan's five-length victory in 2001 is the biggest since 1999.
Looking at the other key protagonists and the spread betting public will have to give close consideration to Snow Fairy. Ed Dunlop's filly has already pulled off the English-Irish Oaks double and finished second last time to Midday in the Yorkshire Oaks. She gets a handy weight allowance for being a member of the fairer sex, but any spread bettor buying her on the win index will be hoping she can become the first filly to win the Leger since User Friendly in 1992.
John Gosden has won this race twice, the last being Lucarno three years ago, and his Arctic Cosmos will be towards the top of the market following his decent run in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood. Spread punters will not be leaving him out of their calculations, while the consistent Dandino will be another to consider. Ted Spread, trained by Mark Tompkins, would have a big chance based on his Chester Vase win, but followers of him on the spreads would like to see some rain before the weekend.
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