Danish St. Leger for the 90th time: Scandinavia’s last classic is run at Klampenborg

Klampenborg stages the season’s second-to-last race day on Saturday 17 October, with eight races and DKK 811,000 in prize money. The feature is the Danish St. Leger over 2800 metres — the 90th running since 1937 and the last classic of the year in both Denmark and Scandinavia — where eleven three-year-olds meet for DKK 200,000. There is just as much in the Stutteri Stork Skandinavisk Grand Prix, where My Fortune defends his title. First race at 12.45.

The Danish St. Leger is the longest and the last of the four Danish classics: 2800 metres for three-year-old, Scandinavian-bred horses. It has been run every single year since 1937 without a break, and Saturday’s is number 90.

Two stallions stand out on the card: Moohaajim has nine offspring entered, Appel Au Maitre eight — and Appel Au Maitre is the most successful sire in the history of the Danish St. Leger with five winners.

Danish St. Leger: Iyan can do what his dam did in 2014

Chess Racing’s Iyan (Bated Breath) has the most resonant background of the eleven. He is a son of Inaya, who won the Danish St. Leger in 2014 — in the same owner’s colours, with the same trainer and the same jockey he has on Saturday.

Jessica Long shares the training record in the race with Søren Jensen on five apiece, and Jacob Johansen shares the riding record with Mark Larsen, also five apiece.

Jessica and Jacob last won the Danish St. Leger together in 2023 with Ray’s Moon (Sea The Moon), who is closely related to Iyan – and so are other St. Leger winners such as Sergel (Archipenko) and Sibelius (Night Shift).

A win for Iyan would make both Jessica and Jacob sole record holders. Chess Racing have already won the race five times as owners and six as breeders, more than anyone else, and Iyan is both owned and bred by Benny Andersson.

Iyan won Novis Løb at Klampenborg on 28 August and was third in Derby Next Stop at Jägersro, but he never got into the race in Svenskt Derby.

Stald Klampenborg’s King To Be (Moohaajim) has the highest handicap rating in the field, 82, and a season that is crying out for a classic. He was second in the Bucherer Danish Derby, beaten half a length by Cosmopolitan (Make Believe); second in Jockeyklubbens 2000 Guineas at Bro Park, beaten in a photo finish by Beethoven (Goken); third in the Danish 2000 Guineas; and second in the Breeders’ Trophy Classic at Bro Park.

Four placings in the very biggest races, none of them won — his only win so far this year came in Derby Trial Stakes on 11 July.

Bettina Andersen trains, Oliver Wilson rides, and the two won the race together in 2024 with My Fortune (Appel Au Maitre), who goes to post in the Stutteri Stork Skandinavisk Grand Prix two hours later. King To Be’s full sister Bianca won at Klampenborg last Saturday and runs again in Saturday’s seventh race.

Only two of the runners have been beyond 2400 metres before. Airborne Racing’s Icefall (Juniper Tree) was second in Svenskt St. Leger at Göteborg on 3 October over 3000 metres, and Hoppe og Co.’s Nevermore (Gleneagles) was third in the same race.

Icefall won both Derby Next Stop and the Svenskt Derby Consolation at Jägersro during the summer, but stumbled and lost his rider in the Danish Derby; Lennart Reuterskiöld Jr. trains, and Per-Anders Gråberg rides, a winner of the race in 2016 and 2021.

Nevermore won the Derby Consolation at Klampenborg on 1 August for Søren Jensen, who can therefore also stand alone on six.

Niels Petersen has won the race once, in 2016 with Suspicious Mind (Appel Au Maitre), and now saddles Stald Sotto’s Konnichiwa (Japan), who was second in the Derby Consolation and then won a three-year-old handicap over 2300 metres at Klampenborg on 19 September carrying 63 kilos. Carlos Lopez rides — he won the race a year ago with Sandhurst (Havana Gold).

Red Moondancer (Appel Au Maitre), owned and bred by Lokalebasen.dk, is the highest rated of the fillies on 80 and has been third in both the Bucherer Danish Derby and the Århus Stiftstidende Jydsk Derby as well as fourth in the Bolou Fine Jewellery Danish Oaks.

She won a fillies’ and mares’ race over 2300 metres on 26 September. Tina Mortensen trains, Evelina Rönnlund rides. If she wins — or one of the other two fillies — it will be the first winning filly since Inaya herself in 2014; only eleven of the 89 previous Danish St. Leger winners have been fillies or mares.

The field is completed by Morten Rasmussen’s Call The Chief (Appel Au Maitre), who won the Krafft Jydsk Derby Consolation and is both trained and ridden by Melissa Vesterholm; Galoppens Venner’s home-bred King (Al Shemali) from Kaj Sørensen’s yard, with two seconds at Klampenborg in late summer; Familien Velin’s Daylight (Gleneagles), fifth in the Danish Derby for Patrick Wilson; Cobblers Cove (Japan), trained by Mikkel Johansen for Trine Johansen and Morten Gaardahl; and Karen Holme-Madsen’s home-bred Perfect Storm (Juniper Tree), who has the lowest handicap rating in the field and is trained by Nathalie Johnsson.

Skandinavisk Grand Prix: My Fortune chasing a double no horse has had

Five horses, DKK 200,000 and 1800 metres at 15.15, with honorary prizes for both the winning owner and the winning breeder. My Fortune (Appel Au Maitre) won the race in 2025 and the Danish St. Leger in 2024 and is thus the fifth horse to have won both — after Opus One, Django, Inaya and Steinway.

None of the four won the Grand Prix twice, so a win on Saturday would make My Fortune the first St. Leger winner with that double. He has the highest handicap rating of the day, 91, won a class 1 handicap at Klampenborg on 5 September by nine lengths and was most recently second at Øvrevoll, beaten half a length by Aphelios (Kodiac) in Arnfinn Lunds Minneløp (L).

My Stable, Kirk and others own him, Bettina Andersen trains, and Oliver Wilson rides — he has won the race three times, in 2020, 2023 and 2024.

The opposition is headed by Stall Trick or Treat’s Grab The Moment (Go Go Gadget), the 2025 Danish Derby winner and unbeaten in 2026: Lone Kaj-Nielsen’s Danish Breeders’ Cup over the same distance at the same track in June, a class 1 handicap at Bro Park in July and the Breeders’ Trophy Mile on 30 August. Nine career starts have brought him DKK 1.77 million. Niels Petersen trains — a winner of the race in 2017 and 2022 — and Carlos Lopez rides.

The two horses have incidentally won the Breeders’ Trophy Mile in successive years, My Fortune in 2025 and Grab The Moment in 2026.

Tina Mortensen has two of the five. Peter Johansen’s The Patriot (Primatico) won three handicaps in a row — Grand Cup and Jydsk Champion Stakes at Aarhus and H.C Andersen Løb at Odense — and was subsequently fourth in both the Spar Nord Arena Champion Stakes and Stark Fyensløbet; Evelina Rönnlund rides.

Silver Wings (Appel Au Maitre) won Ritmester Frigaards Mindeløb at Aarhus on 22 August for Lokalebasen.dk and was third at Klampenborg on 26 September with Lorenzo Putzulu.

Mme Fernande’s Sir Jeffrey (Hunter’s Light) has not won this year but was second in the Tattersalls Golden Mile (L) in May for Lea Olsen. He was bred by Stutteri Stork, who also give the race its name, and he is a son of the broodmare Edallora, who filled the prize money at Klampenborg on 10 October with three offspring – among them Huntington, the winner of Vinterfavoritternes Ærespræmie. His half-brother Hockey Carlras, who also won last Saturday, runs again in Saturday’s seventh race.

The championship: DKK 47,570 between the top two

Saturday is the second-to-last race day at Klampenborg — the season ends on 31 October — and the trainers’ championship, which is settled on prize money in the track’s numbered races, stands at Niels Petersen with DKK 1,605,840 against Lea Olsen’s 1,558,270.

There are DKK 47,570 between them, and the winner of each of the two features collects 100,000. Lea Olsen has seven horses on the card and Bent Olsen just as many; Niels Petersen has only three, but two of them are Konnichiwa and Grab The Moment.

Bettina Andersen has four, among them King To Be and My Fortune, and lies fourth on 1,140,330 — 4,010 behind Søren Jensen. In the jockeys’ championship, which is settled on wins, Carlos Lopez leads with 24 against Oliver Wilson’s 21. Lopez and Per-Anders Gråberg have rides in all eight races, Wilson in seven.

Familien Trocks Ærespræmie: five horses, four winners

The day opens at 12.45 with DKK 100,000 over 1200 metres as a free handicap, and four of the five horses have won this year. Hjelte Restaurang AB’s Rebel’s Gamble (Dark Angel) has the highest handicap rating in the field, 88, after a win at Bro Park on 21 August and a second at Øvrevoll on 2 September; Oscar Berneklint trains, and Jacob Kvisla rides at 63 kilos.

Dorte and Keld Moe Jacobsen’s Biot (City Light) has won three times this year, most recently on 19 September, all three with Per-Anders Gråberg. Bettina Andersen’s Lucien (Hurricane Red) has some fifty starts behind him and was second on 5 September.

Bent Olsen saddles the last two: Nuevo Estrella (Kodiac) was third last Saturday and has the lowest weight in the race, 54 kilos, while King Of Ten (Ten Sovereigns) is still waiting for his first win of the season.

Autumn Handicap Class 3: Don Torkdahl again, a week later

DKK 80,000 over 1800 metres at 16.15 and ten horses. Don Torkdahl (Lucky Vega), owned by Lea Olsen and others, won the last race at Klampenborg on 10 October over 2200 metres — the win that cut DKK 6,010 off Niels Petersen’s lead in the championship — and he is the only three-year-old in the field.

He meets Bartholdi (Justify) again, whom he beat by half a length that day and who is trained by Bent Olsen. Oliver Wilson rides Don Torkdahl, Lorenzo Putzulu rides Bartholdi.

The top weight of 64 kilos is shared by East Wind Racing’s Persian Magic (Moohaajim) and Grey Eminence (Al Shemali), and Chess Racing also have a horse in this race: Faye (New Bay) with Jacob Johansen.

The rest of the day

Class 2 Handicap at 14.45 is DKK 75,000 over 1800 metres for seven horses, where Chianti (Zarak) has the highest handicap rating in the field, 85, and 66 kilos for Miga Horses, while Susanne Strand’s ten-year-old Weltruhm (Excelebration) is the next best rated.

Autumn Handicap Class 4 at 14.15 has DKK 60,000 and the biggest field of the day at thirteen, with eleven-year-old Philiango and ten-year-old Hawthorn as the veterans and with Go Get Happy and Newton, who were second and third behind Bianca last Saturday.

Autumn Handicap Class 5 at 15.45 is a rematch for the first three from the same day’s class 5 race: Hockey Carlras, who won by eleven lengths under 65 kilos and now has 63, plus Mercur and Smooth Operator.

In the same race, eleven-year-old Seashell Pearl goes to post with the lowest weight of the day, 50 kilos. The two-year-old race at 13.45 — DKK 48,000 over 1400 metres — has six horses, and Lulu Tøpholm has two of them: Chamigo (Dark Angel), who won over 1200 metres on 26 September, and the debutant Quite Nice (Iffraaj).

Niels Petersen’s Centurion Bling (Twirling Candy) was third on his Scandinavian debut at Jägersro on 4 October and now tries grass for the first time.