Irish St Leger: Scandinavia extends winning streak to eight

Scandinavia cemented his status as the king of the staying division with a hard-fought victory in the Comer Group International Irish St. Leger.

Winner of the St Leger at Doncaster on this weekend 12 months ago, the Justify colt had continued his progress by winning each of his previous four starts this season including the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in June and his second Goodwood Cup the following month.

The four-year-old was a 4-11 shot to extend his overall winning sequence to eight in the Irish Flat season’s final Classic and while his stablemate Queenstown proved a tough nut to crack on the front end, Scandinavia eventually wore him down and was ultimately well on top as he passed the post two lengths to the good.

O’Brien, who enjoyed a one-two-three as Jan Brueghel made late gains to pick up the bronze medal, said of Scandinavia: “He’s a great horse. He just has an unbelievable amount of stamina. He’s a big, high cruiser and we were delighted to have Queenstown there today to keep going along.

“He (Scandinavia) just goes along there and he really only kicks in after a mile-and-six, which is very unusual.

“He was trained for Ascot for the Gold Cup and then to do these other things. The ground is probably as soft as he wants it, he’s a very good mover as well. Ryan (Moore) gave him a great ride.”

When asked whether the Prix du Cadran at ParisLongchamp could be next, the trainer: “It’s possible. When Ryan came in there he said ‘what about the Cadran for the second horse, to give him a chance’.

“The third horse could go to Ascot for the two-mile race (Long Distance Cup) and then we could put him (Scandinavia) away for Ascot next year.

“You could go to France and the ground could be very bad for him. I don’t want to abuse him either because he’s a made Gold Cup horse. He floats on the fast ground.”

O’Brien appeared particularly pleased with the performance of Jan Brueghel, who had been off the track since Royal Ascot.

“We thought he’d get very tired. He was sick enough and he was off for a good while,” he said.

“He was just about ready to start today but we knew if he was going to go to Ascot he had to start today.

“He does stay very well and he’s a classy horse and handles an ease in the ground. You’d have to be delighted with him.”