Masked Marvel is St Leger superhero

John Gosden’s remarkable eye for a St Leger winner reached new heights when Masked Marvel gave the Newmarket trainer his fourth triumph in the world’s oldest Classic at Doncaster.

A plan hatched two years ago resulted in Masked Marvel not only landing the Ladbrokes-sponsored prize but coming home in a record time of three minutes 0.44 seconds.

A team of pacemakers for several of the fancied runners did their job in amazing fashion to ensure there was no hiding place in the wide expanse of Town Moor and made the extended mile and three-quarters a searching test.

And it was last year’s successful team of Gosden and jockey William Buick who came out on top again.

Following on from Arctic Cosmos, the 15-2 chance was always travelling well behind a strong early pace.

Seville hit the front two furlongs out, but Buick refused to panic and bided his time before pulling clear over a furlong from home.

Masked Marvel quickly put distance between himself and the rest to score by three lengths from the staying-on Brown Panther with favourite Sea Moon a never-nearer third and Seville fourth.

“Last year was a dream and this is another one. From the first day I saw him as a yearling at Deauville, I just thought he was that type,” said Gosden. “He was a powerful little guy then and he has got a great pedigree for this job. He’s done nothing wrong all his life and he won well at Goodwood and was confused by Epsom, but came back well at the July meeting.

“His owner [Bjorn Nielsen] allowed me to back off him and come here nice and fresh so we had a lovely horse for the autumn.

“To win the oldest Classic with this horse is what we’ve planned for about two years – sometimes it works. He’s got a high cruising speed and I told William to settle where you’re happy and not to attack too soon as there is a strong headwind.

“Buthelezi has only one way of going and I said if we wanted a pacemaker, he’s the one, but this [Masked Marvel] is a proper horse.

“He has always looked like a Leger type. We ran him in the Derby which is the best trial for the Leger and he didn’t handle the track.

“He has a high cruising speed and he has got that kick you need at the end. I’d have been disappointed if he hadn’t been one or two.”

Buick, with two wins from just two Leger rides, said: “It was a really good performance and I had a problem pulling him up. It was a solid gallop, as you would expect, and when I asked him to quicken he really did.”

Footballer Michael Owen, owner of Brown Panther, was thrilled with his horse.

“I’m very proud of him,” he said. “I was always confident he would run well as Tom [Dascombe] had him in top form.

“Kieren [Fallon] said he might have been feeling the ground a bit and he will be a better horse with more juice in the ground. He’s a dream horse for me.”