The odds-on favourite Camelot failed to give racing a first Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky in 1971 when he was beaten today in the Ladbrokes St Leger at Doncaster.
The Montjeu colt, who took the 2000 Guineas and Derby earlier this summer for trainer Aidan O’Brien and his jockey son Joseph, went down by three-quarters of a length to 25-1 shot Encke.
Trained in Newmarket for Godolphin by Mahmood Al Zarooni and ridden by the young French jockey Mickael Barzalona, Encke is a son of the top American sire Kingmambo.
Ridden fairly prominently by Barzalona – who took the Derby last year on Pour Moi for Camelot’s owners, the Coolmore syndicate – Encke easily saw off a late challenge from Camelot. The latter was settled in at the back of the field along with Main Sequence, but couldn’t produce the necessary finishing speed inside the last two furlongs.
Third was the John Gosden-trained Michaelangelo at 16-1.
