All the evidence suggests Logician is one to beat in St Leger

LOGICIAN can maintain his unbeaten record by providing John Gosden with a fifth victory in the William Hill St Leger at Doncaster today.

The Clarehaven handler celebrated his first success in the world’s oldest Classic in 1996 with Shantou, but then had to wait until 2007 before Lucarno provided him with a second.

Arctic Cosmos and Masked Marvel secured Gosden back-to-back wins in 2010-11, and he was second 12 months ago with Lah Ti Dar.

Logician brings flawless credentials to the Classic, having won all four of his races to date.

In fairness, until his smooth success in the Great Voltigeur last time out, it would have been hard to prove he was up to anything like this class after winning three weak races. But stepped up to Group Two company at York, he dispatched some decent rivals with disdain and looks to be suited by going even further.

Shine So Bright showed a very willing attitude when holding off the top-class filly Laurens at York, and a reproduction of that effort will make him the one to beat in the Hird Rail Group Park Hill Stakes. He started the season with a win over seven furlongs in the Free Handicap at Newmarket, beating subsequent Jersey Stakes winner Space Traveller.

Given that race is used as a Guineas trial, he then went to the Classic but failed to see out the mile.

Andrew Balding gave him plenty of time to get over that, and the career best last time out suggests he is still improving.

Royal Crusade can give Charlie Appleby victory in the Pommery Champagne Stakes, having created a nice impression on his winning debut at Newmarket. Appleby and William Buick were fulsome in their praise of the Shamardal colt afterwards and while Gimcrack winner Threat is respected, further improvement is expected from the Godolphin runner.