West can bridge gap

RACING/St Leger preview: It's 15 years since a three-year-old has won the final classic of the season, the Irish Field St Leger but Two Miles West looks a value option to stop Vinnie Roe carving out an even more secure niche in history for himself.

Dermot Weld's star six-year-old broke the mould with a three in a row in last year's Leger and ever since the plan has been to come back again.

The trainer, however, has also admitted that Vinnie Roe's preparation this time round, which consists of just two defeats, has been less than straightforward and with a six-strong challenge from Britain there is no denying the difficulty of his task.

The Lonsdale Cup winner, First Charter, will bid to give Michael Stoute and Kieren Fallon a first success in the race and, along with the €30,000 supplementary entry Orange Touch, he looks the best of the raiders.

Aidan O'Brien, also searching for a first Leger, runs Brian Boru as well as the only representatives of classic generation, Two Miles West and Napoleon.

Racing anoraks often get themselves into a stew about calling this race a classic ever since it was opened to older horses in 1983. There were five years in the late 1980s when the younger generation won out but it has proved too hard a task ever since.

Nobody appreciates that more than O'Brien and it is surely significant he still lets the beautifully-bred Two Miles West take his chance.

The son of Sadler's Wells and the triple-classic winner User Friendly has had just four starts and the last of those saw him finish behind Vinnie Roe at Leopardstown.

However Two Miles West, after travelling particularly well throughout, saw his chance disappear when badly baulked in the straight.

Jamie Spencer has made the decision that Brian Boru is a better option but the colt has been very expensive to follow and Seamus Heffernan has successfully stepped up to the classic plate before with Imagine in the 1,000 Guineas three years ago.

O'Brien's Grand Reward was only sixth of eight behind Ringmoor Down over five furlongs here on his last start but the colt was beaten less than a length and the extra furlong of the Ballygallon Stud Renaissance Stakes will suit.

Babacora followed up his Gowran success on soft ground with a fourth-placed finish to Arch Rebel here and John Oxx's progressive type could well be the one to back for the mile and a quarter handicap.