Orange in line for Curragh

THE Irish St Leger at the Curragh on September 11 has emerged as a possible target for Thursday’s Goodwood Cup hero Big Orange. Owner Bill Gredley nominated the Group One prize run over one and three-quarter miles as a potential ideal target for a gelding his trainer Michael Bell reckons is ‘top class over both a mile and a half and two miles’. But Gredley added he was ‘leaning towards not running’ in the Melbourne Cup for a second time after Big Orange followed his 2015 Goodwood Cup win with fifth place Down Under last year. Gredley was speaking after he enjoyed another lucrative win with Bell as Franklin D landed a big gamble in the Betfred Mile Handicap. Backed down to 7-4 favourite, the Ryan Moore-ridden colt held off Master The World by a head. Franklin D had been considered a handicap snip carrying a three pound penalty for a recent Newmarket win when the handicapper would have liked to have given him 10lb more. Bell said: ‘A lot of people backed him but I always believed in the horse.’ Moore completed a treble with Kings Fete and Poet’s Word and has now had six wins at the meeting.