Now the ATC St Leger Stakes by Bernard Kenny
Racing royalty returns to Australia with our oldest classic the AJC St Leger being run again at Royal Randwick on Saturday 14 October, alongside the $10m The Everest, the world’s richest turf race.
Now officially titled the ATC St Leger Stakes it will be the sponsored Heineken 3 St Leger Stakes over 2600m, carrying $500,000 total prize money with $287,000 to the winner.
The race is now open to Three-Year-olds and Upwards at Set Weights with Penalties and Allowances. There is no Class restriction with a $22,500 allocated BOBS&BOBS Extra Bonus, plus a $5,000 each Equine Welfare Fund and Jockey Welfare Fund contribution.
Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club have re-bolstered the status of the Sydney Spring Racing Carnival, with over $22.5 million in prize money. The new style The Everest Day now heads to be the highlight of the Sydney racing season.
The ATC St Leger Stakes will be staged in association with the $10m The Everest of 1200m, run at Standard Weight for Age with 12 starters. The $600,000 buy-in slot is based on the $US12m Pegasus World Cup won by Arrogate at Gulfstream Park on 28 January.
The City Tattersalls Lightning of 1200m and Craven Plate 2000m, both run at Standard Weight for Age, have been re-located along with the Reginald Allen Quality of 1400m for 3YOs and the Victory Vein Plate 1000m for 2YOs at Set Weights plus Penalties.
The newly programmed Anniversary Handicap is a Benchmark 80 Handicap for 3YOs and Upwards run over 1400m and restricted to horses that have contested previous Highway Handicaps.
The AJC St Leger claimed the title of Australia’s oldest classic when first run in 1841 at Homebush as a 3YO event over 1½ miles and won by Mr Richard Rouse’s bay filly Eleanor. It was conducted annually at the Autumn meeting until 1959 at Randwick when it was disbanded.
The race was re-instated by the AJC Committee again in 1980, encouraged by a direct descendent of Major General Anthony St Leger who instigated the St Leger Stakes, first run at Doncaster Racecourse in northern England in 1776.
The AJC St Leger was first run over 1½ miles, later extended to 1¾ miles and the metric equivalent of 2800m, at 3YO set weights until 1984 when it was opened to 4YOs. In 2001 the event was again abandoned due to small fields and not maintaining the class to uphold its Group 3 status.
Racing Hall of Fame trainer Lee Freedman has always stated that his 1989 AJC St Leger winner Tawriffic ‘will always be remembered as the first of our five Melbourne Cup wins.’
Tawriffic was a noted tough stayer and not only won the Gr2 AJC St Leger as a four-year-old in 1989, but some seven months later took out the Melbourne Cup of 3200m in a track record time of 3:17.1min, defeating stable mate Super Impose by over two lengths.
Tawriffic greatly contributed to the rise of former champion NZ apprentice Shane Dye, who won the Melbourne Cup and the first of his seven AJC St Leger victories on Tawriffic that year.
Shane Dye became the most successful ‘modern day’ jockey in the AJC St Leger with additional victories on Chaleyer the following year in 1990, Te Akau Nick in 1993, Interval 1997, Inshallah 1999 and Tie The Knot, the future Australian Stayer, in 2000.
Lee Freedman went onto win four additional Melbourne Cup’s with Subzero in 1992 ridden Greg Hall, Dorimus in 1995 with Damien Oliver and Makybe Diva’s second and third Melbourne Cup victories in 2004 and 2005 ridden by Glenn Boss.