Doncaster Betting Tips Today: Best Bets On Opening Day Of St Leger Festival

The St Leger Festival is one of the highlights of the flat racing season, with thousands attending to watch history in the making across four thrilling days of action on Town Moor.

The May Hill Stakes and the Park Hill Stakes are the standout races on the first day of the fixture, which is also Ladies Day.

Our horse racing expert Steven Mullington marks your eight race card:

1.15 – 6½f Fillies’ Nursery Handicap 

SPEED OF SOUND, ridden by Saffie Osborne, heads our horse racing betting after showing remarkably consistent recent form (3213) so far this season.

The Richard Spencer-trained filly appears to be suited by any surface, as her admirable third at York last time showed. That was a highly competitive race which bodes well again for today.

1.50 – 6½f Weatherbys 2-Y-O Stakes

Danny Tudhope and Edward Bethell have done some astute targeting of high-value juvenile prizes already this season, and the current 20/1 odds about BLAZING INFERNO seems like a crazy price on the face of it.

I rate Carlisle form highly, and his novice stakes victory over this distance is good enough to make him an each-way player.

2.25 – 1m2f Handicap

SINTRA, representing the powerful Juddmonte operation, stands out significantly from a tactical perspective.

She looks to be the lone front-runner in the field, and if Nicola Currie can dictate a soft lead, she may prove tough to peg back for a stable firing home the winners at present.

3.00 – 1m6½f Park Hill Fillies’ Stakes (Group 2) 

CONSENT (NAP) finished a narrow runner-up in this exact race last year behind Santorini Star, before going on to land the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu on Arc weekend.

Any kind of soft in the going description will be right up her street and she’s not on a rating of 112 for nothing.

3.35 – 1m May Hill Stakes (Group 2 Fillies)

Trained by Joseph O’Brien, BALLYSKEAGH (NB) sets the standard here with an official rating of 99.

Arriving at Doncaster off a string of good performances, she is a powerful filly that handles a bit of cut in the ground.

Her Gleneagles pedigree stands out a mile to me when making a pick in a race of this nature.

4.10 – 1m Nursery Handicap 

The Karl Burke yards is notoriously dangerous with two-year-olds on easy ground which leads me to select WAASIL over this new trip of a mile.

He was a solid fourth on debut before following that up with a brace of victories. A mile should be no problem either.

4.45 – 7f Nursery Handicap

Given that Andrew Balding’s horses are currently running out of their skin during this wet spell of weather, my instinct is to back Jeff Smith’s STORM BLADE in this nursery handicap.

The colt should find this racecourse much more to his liking than at Chester.

5.20 – 1m4f Handicap

ITICA sprang a relative surprise the other day over 1m3f on soft at Goodwood, and can follow up despite a 6lb rise in the weights.

Nevertheless, the three-year-old is still running off bottom weight this afternoon and has Oisin Murphy in the plate, making him a popular bet in our sports betting markets.

*Odds subject to change – prices accurate at the time of writing*