There’s another brilliant eight-race card to look forward to on Town Moor on Friday and the feature race is run in honour of the late journalist Howard Wright, who loved the St Leger Festival.
This year’s renewal of the Group 2 Howard Wright Doncaster Cup at 3.35 on Friday, live on Sky Sports Racing, sees plenty of old favourites turning up and making the most of the absence of dominant stayer Kyprios playing on his own home patch in the Irish St Leger on Sunday at the Curragh.
This opens the door for the likes of Sweet William but then Trueshan kept him at bay in last season’s edition and the rain has arrived to help his case. There isn’t much to split the field on ratings and with no three-year-old in the line-up to take advantage of the weight allowance, it’s become close.
Coltrane is another in the field with a past Doncaster Cup victory which was back in 2022 when he broke the trend of lots of short price winners being successful when he returned at 9-1. Andrew Balding also won the race with Spanish Mission in 2020. Stradivarius was a dominant stayer for a few seasons and took this in 2019 when there was no stopping him, he also landed this again in 2021.
One of my favourites to have won this race was Her Majesty The Queen’s Estimate in 2014, the year after she’d won the Gold Cup at Ascot.
Coltrane (stall 5)
Oisin Murphy | Andrew Balding
Coltrane has been a great campaigner in the staying division, he won this race in 2022. His run in the Sagaro Stakes in first-time cheek pieces in May was a game performance. He has since been struggling behind the talented Kyprios and whilst this is more winnable today, I can’t back him with much faith, and I just hope for his connections that he bounces back again this season but he was eased down in this race last year when sent off a short-priced favourite.
I did wonder if connections would switch up his headgear and maybe try some blinkers, but he is a character so maybe it’s not as simple as that.
Gregory (3)
James Doyle | John & Thady Gosden
Gregory ran a career best in the Goodwood Cup and has been kept busy with another race since when also trying to make all in the Lonsdale Cup. He was third behind Vauban and in front of Night Sparkle, who ran a good race at Doncaster for second in the Park Hill to the younger legs of Nakheel so that’s a good line of form.
The way Gregory just keeps staying on makes me think he will be a tough nut to crack here on his second run at Doncaster since finishing fifth in the St Leger.
Point Lonsdale (6)
Ryan Moore | Aidan O’Brien
Point Lonsdale is the substitute for the absence of Kyprios for Aidan O’Brien, but he certainly isn’t a like-for-like swap. At York last time out, it was too far out to say that he hadn’t stayed, so it’s interesting he tries even further today. Connections must feel there is still unfinished business in the staying division, so I therefore respect that. Also, his victory in the Ormonde at Chester impressed me, so I’m not discounting him in this line-up.
Sweet William (1)
Robert Havlin | John & Thady Gosden
This season has been Sweet William’s best year yet. It was a solid return to action in the Sagaro Stakes at Ascot when Coltrane made all to score. He then won at Sandown beating Trueshan, before staying on well for third in the Gold Cup at Ascot behind Kyprios and Trawlerman.
At Goodwood, he ran a cracker to follow home Kyprios and managed to beat Gregory, Trueshan and Coltrane. His last two races suggest he is the one they all have to beat here.
Trueshan (2)
Hollie Doyle | Alan King
Trueshan is only eight, I feel like he’s 28! He has been the most incredible horse for his owners and tries today to make it back-to-back victories. I feel like there’s been enough rain around for him to build on what he showed at Goodwood on ground on the quicker side of good.
Hollie Doyle retains the ride on Trueshan
His listed Sandown win beating Night Sparkle showed he still has the ability to win a renewal like this of the Doncaster Cup.
Wise Eagle (4)
Danny Tudhope | Adam Nicol
Wise Eagle completes the line-up and comes into this with ground conditions to suit. He came back with a great run when coming third in the Group 3 at York back in July. He struggled in the Ebor and never got involved, so today might be a tough task too.
Hayley Moore’s verdict
I’m intrigued that Point Lonsdale is in the line-up, so I’ll watch with interest to see if he bounces back today. However, I think I’m most looking forward to seeing Gregory with ease in the ground at Doncaster again. His mother, Gretchen, won the Park Hill back in 2015, so it would be good to see him bring home the Doncaster Cup.
