Capri motors to St Leger glory at Doncaster

Capri gave Ryan Moore a first victory in the William Hill St Leger as Aidan O’Brien’s grey held Crystal Ocean in the world’s oldest Classic at Doncaster.

The son of Galileo became the first horse since Triple Crown hero Nijinsky in 1970 to win both the Irish Derby and the St Leger, in his first race since his success at the Curragh 77 days earlier.

Stradivarius, trained by John Gosden, looked a real threat on the far rail, but Capri (3-1 favourite) was already close to the pace and set sail for home inside the final quarter-mile.

Sir Michael Stoute’s Crystal Ocean made a strong run from the rear, but Capri held the aces to score by half a length and give O’Brien a fifth win in the race. Stradivarius was just a short-head away in third.

O’Brien said: “He’s a horse with a lot of class, which we saw in the Irish Derby. When Ryan wanted it, he gave it to him.

“Seamus (Heffernan) rides him a lot at home and has always been a big believer in him. He always said he had class and that he would stay.

“Ryan had ridden him once before when winning the Beresford on him, but that was last season. I was a bit worried about that as well, but it all went great.”

O’Brien added: “As he had a blip at York we were worried coming here, but that he would improve a bit for the run. We had it in our heads that if all went well today and everything went well after he could run in the Arc.

“Obviously the lads (Coolmore) will decide what they want to do – run him again or put him away.”

Moore said: “It was a really hard race, but he didn’t look like a horse who’d had a hard race. I just feel it was a very good Leger – in normal years the first three would be worthy winners.

“He’s shown he stays well, but he’s an Irish Derby winner and that form looked very good. It was a good Leger and he put up a very strong performance. Everything had every chance, but he fought them off and was the best horse.”

Stoute felt Crystal Ocean just found his stamina running out.

He said: “I’d prefer to have won it, but he ran a great race, we’re thrilled with him.

“I thought he was going to win, but we won’t run him beyond a mile and a half again. It was always a danger that he was a mile-and-a-half horse and that’s his trip.”