Derby a fast track to VRC St Leger

First run in 1857, just 18 months after the first VRC Derby,  the Derby/St Leger double was one of the most often-completed doubles in Australian racing.

Thirty-six times it happened in the first 100 seasons with legends Phar Lap and Tulloch among those to have achieved it, along with Hall of Famers Grand Flaneur, Poseidon, Hall Mark, Comic Court, Delta and Sailor’s Guide.

But it’s been almost 60 years since the most recent, Khalif (1966/67), and the Derby’s influence on the St Leger has waned with the latter’s diminishing status.

A Principal Race until 1979, the 2800-metre St Leger carried Group 2 status from 1980-90, was a Group 3 until 2006 and has been run at Listed level ever since.

Run on Anzac Day since 1961, this year’s edition will be run at Flemington this Saturday, with a purse of $200,000.

The Derby is back as a key form reference with the third placegetter in that 2500m Group 1 last spring, Deal Done Fast, one of the leading fancies this weekend.

It will be just the sixth time in the past 35 years that a Victoria Derby placegetter has contested the St Leger.

Alegron is the flagbearer of that group, winning the 2022 St Leger after a second placing to Hitotsu in the 2021 Derby, while Etymology was runner-up in both events in the 2015/16 season.

The other three – Our Bahare (2003), Astoria (2018) and Stars Of Carrum (2019) – were all unplaced in the St Leger.

Deal Done Fast’s Howden Victoria Derby effort, when beaten just 1.5 lengths by Observer, earned him a Racing And Sports rating of 107, which has him among the highest-rated runners to contest a St Leger in the past 20 years.

Only 12 horses have gone into a St Leger with a higher rating in that time.

Alegron won as a 114-rater and Order Of The Sun, the 2014 winner, went in off a peak rating of 113.

Etymology was one of three rated 112, 2013 winner Hippopus and Sherpa Tenzing owned a rating of 110, while Stars Of Carrum and Astoria were among those rated 109.

Deal Done Fast, who also ran 107 two starts ago in the Group 1 Rosehill Guineas (2000m) and went 103 when eighth in the ATC Australian Derby (2400m) at his most recent appearance, is the only runner in this year’s St Leger who has run to triple figures.

Johnich and Crown Of Russia are next highest at 98 with Dad And Dave, who won the Launceston Guineas and Tasmanian Derby at Listed level earlier in the year, a 97-rater.

Despite his ratings edge, the Matt Cumani-trained Deal Done Fast sits on the $4 second line in TAB’s St Leger market behind $3.10 favourite Silvasista, who is coming off a 2200m Donald BM62 win in a rating of 96.

The daughter of Toronado, who trained by this season’s Lexus Melbourne Cup winners Tony and Calvin McEvoy, is one of two fillies in the race, accompanied by $21 chance I Belong.

The girls are striving to become the 18th filly to win the race, but only the fourth this century behind Ahuriri (2024), Exceptionally (2010) and Inkster and Moment In Time, who dead-heated in 2008.