Doncaster

But yeah, just a quick last point about the prize money and what you said, Shane, about English trainers.

This is a classic meeting at Doncaster happening now with first prize money of £20,000 to £25,000, nearly a quarter of what's on offer in Ireland.

absolute incredible so uh that's what needs to be thinks of the if you can get there and win it's a hell of a prize we now go to the first group one it is the golden fleece um the first group one of the meets in verse of many and darkness falls is the 74 favorite now i'll come to you i see first in the hope you have more than one sentence

I've got a book on this race.

We have got a cracking couple of days racing coming up this weekend with two days of the Irish Champions Festival from Leopardstown and the Curragh and also the final British classic of the flat season, the Betfred St.

Ledger tomorrow at Doncaster.

We're going to start, though, at Leopardstown tomorrow for their big race, the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, a Group 1 over 10 furlongs, and this features the first three home from the Juddmont International at York.

Constitution River, who's currently favourite, was only third that day, but the Victor item is in there at 2-1 currently, and earlier on in the week, Nick spoke to Juddmont's Barry Mahon about how he's been getting on since York.

You've got a lot of horses in single-figure prices for big races this weekend.

Moira Rua in the Inga Bell Stakes is a two-to-one shot.

Kirat's going in the Park Stakes at Doncaster.

Fayoum's a very short price for the Solanaway Stakes, but I guess the one that everybody will be honing in on is Monogram, the once-raced kingman who represents Joseph O'Brien in the Vincent O'Brien National Stakes.

I think we're looking at good ground at the moment at Leopardstown, not too much in the way of rain forecasts.

So hopefully it's perfect ground conditions and looks the same at Doncaster as well for the ledger.

Yeah, it does that.

Right, it's time to get stuck into it.

Looking forward to it.

It's five o'clock on Saturday.

Right, we're going to take a pause and we're going to fly from Leperstown back over to Doncaster for the last classic of the season.

It is the St.

It's still the flat season, uh, no matter what the, the temperature gauge, uh, is starting to say.

Uh, but of course, we have the final classic of the season coming up at, uh, Doncaster.

Uh, and the St. Leger will be taking center stage of the show, but there are loads of other, uh, absolutely top-class, uh, uh, races to get stuck into.

And I say it's taking center stage, um, is it really? Or is it the Irish Champion Stakes? Is that the race you're looking forward to the most? Is it finding next year's classic generation with those, uh, those two-year-old races? We're gonna be talking about those, uh, as well.

Um, so, um, yeah, uh, let us know what you are backing this weekend in the, uh, in the chat.

Again, your best bets, if you do put them in capital letters, it is much easier for me to, uh, to see them and, uh, and read them, uh, read them out.

So, uh, yeah, we're gonna b- have a bit of Doncaster, a bit of Leopardstown, a bit of the Curragh, and probably, well, probably something else will crop up as well as we, uh, as we go on.

Um, so without further ado, let's get stuck in to a big weekend of racing.

Romantic Warrior retired.

Kah Yaang rising crown, the highest-rated horse in training at 135, and we will touch on the Doncaster St. Leger.

250 years of the Doncaster St. Leger.

But there is no time.

We have to kick on because there's three Group Ones now at the Curragh.

Gate 11 of 11 obviously isn't a help, but Jer Line saves a good filly for this.

He's won three of the last four renewals.

Before we move on to the Curragh, I want to mention the small matter of the Doncaster St. Leger.

your way?

Doncaster.

Oh, Doncaster.

Donny.

It was a place called Balby.

Aye, but Sam Kinnock done me a real turn on that, because when the Blast TV had said, this is going to get released this date, I'm like, I'm telling you, it's fucking not.

You know what I mean? And he went through the whole...

he's a corporate lawyer you know what I mean he went through the whole legal aspect I would have just put one in the producer's chin you know what I mean but but I managed to get away and they were like oh we can we can blur him out and low pitch his voice but at the time I had green hair covered in tattoos right be a Scottish accent you know what I mean I might only be one of them in Doncaster but aye so didn't you actually go out no I didn't never went out never went out I've got the aye aye no I done my real turn on that because it could have been it could have been bad you know what I mean because then it would have been associated with what I'd done I might have lost the boxing licence I might have lost this that so anyway I had to come back home I came back home right in the middle of Covid and in the hospital as well the reason my leg's so bad is my own fault obviously that happened to me shouldn't have happened to me I put myself in that position I was a f***ing idiot thinking I'll make this I'll make this I'll do this I'll do that just being a wee dick and I put myself in that position but at one point I was sitting in the hospital and they're like, somebody will be in to dress you soon, and we'll get you a chair, I'm talking a fucking chair, full of cables, you know what I mean, a fucking little Terminator, wires all coming out of me, right, my fucking chair, as soon as they said chair, I was like, not a fucking chance, so, I stood myself up, got myself dressed, full of morphine, you know what I mean, and walked out, and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, try to hold me up and all that, I was like, I'm fine and they decided not to put me in the chair they gave me crutches I used them I think three times three weeks later after being stabbed having a hole ripped in my leg I decided to go running I hate running right there's loads of videos on me talking about how much I fucking hate running but at the point where I couldn't walk I was like all I had to do was run and I got told I had to do something about that you know what I mean and I went I went and I run I fucking burst my eye back up full fucking shouting and bawling on that old old Instagram you know what I mean and I'm back I'm back next day I woke up my leg was like that size

Well, Champions Weekend is upon us, and we have the first leg tomorrow afternoon at Leperstown, and the second leg is at the Curragh course on Sunday.

And across Channel Way of the Ledger at Doncaster, and before we know it, we'll be at the Harvest Festival at the Stole next Sunday week.

But we look ahead to racing, some cracking racing, some great handicaps as well as everything else, the class races at Leperstown this weekend.

But we start with the Portland Handicap race, one of the traditional feature contests toward the end of the season, Cross Channel.

That unique distance of five furlongs and 143 yards, a distance that Doncaster has used but just once a year for the Portland handicap.

It is always a race where you need luck in running.

Twilight Calls is on a hat-trick for Richard Spencer.

If she can improve a little bit, I can absolutely see her finishing the first three, and that'll do with 66s.

And so we're going to finish up with the other classic, sorry, the only classic this weekend, if you're going to be technical about it, and that is the ledger at Doncaster.

And we have a strong kind of...

I suppose renewal of the horses I've ran at Epsom and the Curragh.

Now this race goes ahead of 3.35. What a weekend of hunting and racing.

So you've an early start yesterday at Doncaster and Leopardstown all the way into Shelbourne Park tomorrow night and then the Curragh on Sunday.

Christmas Day, Enchiladas looks like Enchiladas might even have gone favourite under Billy Loughnan, the kid.

Now I'm actually going to tip Stablemate here, Highwayman.

They're all of a similar stature, about 5'9", and all, you can go along the row and, you know, there's only, you probably have to look at the boots to tell who they are.

So there will be three or four of those from that eight and nine that play and the others will be on the bench so we've got um uh jack lancaster who will probably play wide on the right um though he's left footed um he's a very good player he's though he's just coming back from an injury we've got um Joel Tabiner who's one of ours came through the system again lovely very pretty player um uh I'm just trying to think Jordan Gibson who was at um where was he at Doncaster when they went up a couple of years ago um he he's a summer signing one of our few um and he he's not quite hit it yet so we're expecting something to happen and then you've got um Josh March up front who um This is his second season now, and although he's not the biggest man in the world, he doesn't half put himself around, and his energy levels are fantastic, and he's been getting our goals so far.

I think if we do have any issues, it is probably finishing teams off or scoring the goals that we possibly should.

We're lacking that goal scorer, but I think that probably 20 of the 24 teams in League 2 could say that, couldn't they?