Ballydoyle’s Brueghel battles to Betfred St Leger glory

The Betfred St Leger is heading back to across the Irish Sea courtesy of Aidan O’ Brien’s hardy Jan Brueghel, who prevailed in a thrilling finish under Sean Levey.

As was widely expected, Jan Brueghel’s stablemate, Grosvenor Square jumped well from the stalls and dictated affairs from an early stage, closely attended to by pre-race favourite Illinois in the hands of Wayne Lordan.

With the brace of Ballydoyle runner dictating the pace, a tactical affair was to ensue and remarkably, all of the seven runners remained on the bridle as the field swept into the home straight.

Having travelled keenly, Ralph Beckett’s Irish Oaks winning filly You Got To Me was the first to give way, closely followed by outsider of the septet, Wild Waves. Approaching three furlongs from home, five runners remained in the picture.

Illinois was the first to commit, lengthening in an ominous manner against the far rail and appeared to possess a winning hand until Sean Levey began to unleash stablemate Jan Brueghel towards his outside.

A titanic battle was to follow and with Illinois holding a slim advantage upon entering the final furlong, Levey galvanised the gritty and determined son of Galileo, Jan Brueghel to draw alongside and ultimately pass his more battle-hardened stablemate, prevailing by a neck at the winning post.

In winning 2024’s final Classic on just his third career start, Jan Brueghel provided Coolmore with back-to-back victories in the race after Continuous took the £421,000 first prize in 2023.

Passing the line in fourth place, David Menuisier’s Sunway was promoted to third place after a Steward’s Enquiry that also involved Owen Burrows’ Deira Mile who passes the post in third but was subsequently demoted to fourth position after interfering with his fellow British-trained rival inside the final few furlongs.

A delighted Levey was winning the prestigious Betfred St Leger for the first time and was quick to praise the team at Ballydoyle, a place at which his late father had worked for most of his life. The Swazi native was in a reflective move and stated that “he (his father) would be very proud, no doubt. The first thing that he’d definitely say is thank you to Aidan, Mr Magnier, Mrs Magnier and the whole team”.

On the winner, the now six-time QIPCO British Champions Series race-winning jockey was full of praise, confirming that “he’s (Jan Brueghel) a Gold Cup horse in the making”, later elaborating that “he will step up a fair bit next year, he has that bit of class and he did that really well”.