Among the intriguing warm-ups to Saturday’s St Leger at Doncaster is the Portland, a famed 5½-furlong handicap. We have a full field of 22 runners again this year for a race worth £100,000, just over half of which goes to the winner.

Ground on the soft side is still expected come Saturday afternoon, though with a going stick reading of 6.3 on Thursday and some drier weather ahead, the surface should ride OK. The draw isn’t absolutely crucial in this race, though high numbers on the stands side have been marginally preferred.

Last year’s winner Call Me Ginger is back for more, but these are the six we’ve taken against the field and all are available at attractive prices.

Main Contenders

Aberama Gold

Near the top of the weights and coming from gate 14 is Aberama Gold, the recent Stewards’ Cup winner.

That form is naturally rock-solid and his handicap mark is fine. On the downside; it seems everything was leading up to him winning at Goodwood, a race that on heavy ground has taken plenty out of him.

He is 61 races into his career now and it’s doubtful that he’s got a whole lot more to give, so his 5lb rise might just stop him.

Badri

Julie Camacho’s Badri is also a 100-rated six-year-old handicapper, though this one has fewer miles on the clock than Aberama Gold.

Though he didn’t handle the heavy ground well behind his old rival in the Stewards’ Cup, he was a fine second at Ascot in July on good to soft and again on the Tapeta at Newcastle last time. Solid contender.

Get It

Tom Marquand takes the ride for George Baker on Get It, a five-year-old with perhaps his best days on the track still ahead of him.

Second on rain-softened ground at Chepstow over five furlongs in August and a winner last time over six at Wolverhampton, this trip and ground should not present any major worries.

He’s gone up just 4lbs for his Racing League win and it won’t be his handicap mark that stops him now, though this is a very competitive event.

Haymaker 

Hughie Morrison’s Haymaker is only a four-year-old and from stall 19 he does stand out a little.

A winner three times already, he’s heading in the right direction but isn’t improving in lumps. There’s also the fact to deal with that his wins have come on quicker ground than he can expect to find at Doncaster.

He was second to Popmaster at Ascot on soft ground recently so appears to handle it well enough, while his draw is a good one in theory.

Tees Spirit

We once successfully put up Tees Sprit to win the Epsom Dash and he’s in with a shout of another big pot here.

Since landing a Listed race in Ireland last summer Adrian Nicholls’ runner has been largely out of form. Lately however there have been shoots of recovery presenting themselves and in fact he was a good second to Raasel at Haydock when last seen.

Another leap forward from there sees him well handicapped in this race, however we don’t have an awful lot of positive soft ground form to go on.

Vintage Clarets

Richard Fahey tends to keep his horses busy, including Vintage Clarets, but we can still spot improvements in form overall which is the case with this four-year-old.

A good start to the season led to this horse being very well fancied for a €100,000 race at the Curragh in June, but instead he went to the Gosforth Park Cup at Newcastle. He duly won that race impressively before following up with a fine third at Ascot in a heritage handicap.

He’s been a little below than level in three runs since, but he’s been off for over three weeks, will be fresher now and has plenty in his favour in terms of ground and trip etc.

Summary

As always, this is a frightfully competitive race and there are plenty of runners in with a chance.

Despite that, very few of the contenders are improving types which is arguably to be expected at this stage of the season. Two who are going the right way overall however are Haymaker and especially VINTAGE CLARETS.

The Gosforth Park Cup winner should love the conditions and the trip here. He’s drawn on the far side, but it’s not a major disadvantage at Doncaster and in fact there is very strong pace in stalls 8, 9 and 10 which will give him a lovely tow into the race.