O’Brien books Loughnane for Leger fancy Enceladus

With stable jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle still sidelined, Joseph O’Brien is pleased to have secured Billy Loughnane for the ride aboard the well-fancied Enceladus in Saturday’s Betfred St Leger at Doncaster.

Having won the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood this summer, Enceladus is the 9-4 second-favourite with the sponsors for the 250th running of the world’s oldest Classic behind Aidan O’Brien’s Derby hero Christmas Day, who heads the betting at 13-8.

Browne McMonagle steered the Sea The Stars colt to victory on the Sussex Downs, but Ireland’s champion jockey has not ridden since being hospitalised after suffering a heavy fall at Bellewstown less than two weeks ago.

O’Brien has now confirmed his number one rider will not return in time to ride either at Doncaster or during this weekend’s Irish Champions Festival, meaning he has turned to British title race leader Loughnane for his Leger contender.

“The plan is for Enceladus to run there and we’re delighted to have Billy on board,” the trainer told the Press Association on Monday.

“We’re very happy with how he’s been training and his preparation has gone smoothly. He shapes like a horse that will have a good chance of staying and he has a good temperament for it, so we’d be hopeful he’ll be fine at the trip.”

O’Brien is set to saddle a second runner in the Town Moor showpiece in the improving Highwayman, although a rider has not yet been booked for the Killarney maiden and Leopardstown Listed race winner.

O’Brien added: “I’d say the likelihood is that he probably will run. He’s done nothing wrong and it will really tell us where we’re going from here.”

While the Owning Hill handler will not be able to call upon the services of his number one rider this weekend, he is more than happy with the team of his jockeys he has at his disposal.

He said: “Dylan won’t be back, but that was never on the cards. We’re hoping he can get back at some stage in the not too distant future, but I don’t think it was ever on the cards for him to get back for this weekend.

“We have a great team of riders that ride for us regularly, so there’s no worries in that department.”

Enceladus and Christmas Day are among 12 St Leger confirmations, with the latter bidding to become the first horse since Reference Point in 1987 to win both the premier Classic at Epsom and the world’s oldest Classic on Town Moor.

Christmas Day is a son of Camelot – who himself was memorably denied the Triple Crown by Encke in the 2012 St Leger – is set to be joined by several stablemates on Town Moor, with Aidan O’Brien also leaving in Action, Piazza San Marco, Pierre Bonnard and the only filly in the potential field, Amelia Earhart.

The home team is headed by Andrew Balding’s Hatteen, who won the inaugural St Leger Trial at Doncaster earlier in the season, while the Kingsclere handler could also saddle Galiyan.

Alderman (Richard Hannon), Golden Story (Karl Burke) and Rebel Rocker (Faye Bramley) are the other contenders.

The going at Doncaster ahead of the four-day St Leger Festival, which gets under way on Thursday, was described as good to soft on Monday morning and clerk of the course David Attwood could not be happier with conditions.

He told Sky Sports Racing: “The rain came for us about seven or 10 days ago and the track has absolutely popped – it looks a million dollars. No now we just need to get everything ready to welcome the horses.

“We went out this morning and the ground is good to soft. We’re very happy at the moment.

“It depends which forecast you look at and which one you want to believe. It’s looking predominantly dry, 18 to 20C throughout the week. There may be the odd chance of a shower at some point.

“I would think if we stay mainly dry then good might come into the description when we start on Thursday. I can see us starting on the easy side of good for the start of the four days and we’re probably going to leave the watering cans in the shed this week!”