Stoute pair have Leger option

Sir Michael Stoute has made just two entries, Harbinger and Saptapadi, in his bid to land back-to-back victories in the Ladbrokes St Leger.After 34 years of trying to win the world's oldest Classic, Conduit finally ended the Newmarket trainer's hoodoo at Doncaster last September. He will look to either Saptapadi, who carries the Conduit colours of the Ballymacoll Stud, or the lightly-raced Harbinger to add a second.The latter is a 12-1 chance with the sponsors having shown plenty of promise when getting off the mark at Chester in May and Harry Herbert, managing director of the colt's owners, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, said: "I saw Harbinger on Tuesday morning and he looked fantastic."Herbert went on: "He did some half-speed work and he's really doing well physically. At the moment, the plan is to run him in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood at the end of the month and take it one step at a time. "Harbinger's on an upward curve and he's a physical specimen that we can only see improving. He would have run in the King Edward VII Stakes but he had a muscle pull, which forced him to miss a couple of pieces of work. "It was nothing seriously wrong - just a tight muscle in his quarters - and he's held in pretty high regard so we didn't want to risk him. He's not guaranteed to get the Leger trip and he's a horse with plenty of natural speed, as we saw at Chester when he quickened over a mile and a quarter."We will hopefully see how he gets on in the Gordon Stakes or possibly the Great Voltigeur at York and we will learn more about him there."Golden Sword is the 4-1 favourite with Ladbrokes and the Irish Derby runner-up is among 15 entries from Aidan O'Brien's stable. The Ballydoyle maestro has already won the Leger three times and his other possibles include Masterofthehorse, Black Bear Island, Freemantle, Age Of Aquarius, Changingoftheguard and Dixie Music.Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Again, trained by David Wachman, and the Aga Khan's Irish Derby third Mourayan, trained by John Oxx, complete a 17-strong Irish team.Others among a total of 41 entries include Kite Wood, Mastery and Flying Cloud from Godolphin's seven, and Henry Cecil's duo of Father Time and Native Ruler.