There is NOK 200,000 at stake in the Norsk St. Leger on Thursday evening, half of it to the winner. The field holds just four runners – but the question is big enough all the same: can this year’s Derby winner also win a classic against the older horses?
Stall GM’s Super Smooth (Quarterback) won the Range Rover Norsk Derby on 25 August by three-quarters of a length and now has five wins from nine starts.
As a 3-year-old he lines up with 57.5 kilos against 61 for the two 4-year-old geldings and 59.5 for the mare in the field. In return he has to go further than ever before: the 2,830 metres are 430 more than the Derby.
Gina Mathisen is owner, breeder and trainer of Super Smooth, Willa Synøve Schou rides — and with NOK 944,502 earned so far, another first prize would take him past the million.
His sire Quarterback won the Norsk Derby himself in 2015 and later in his career followed up by winning the Scandinavian Open Championship (Gr.3) and the Stockholm Cup International (Gr.3), among others.
The opposition is headed by Bling Enterprise’s Galactico Bling (Galileo), who has much the highest rating in the field, 89, and who was second in last year’s St. Leger — then as a 3-year-old, four lengths behind the dual winner If He Says So (Summer Front).
He has won three of his four starts this year, and Niels Petersen now puts up Carlos Lopez in place of Oliver Wilson, who has ridden him until now for his previous trainer Jan-Erik Neuroth.
Stall Lilleville’s Light Garden (Almanzor) provides the race’s most telling comparison. He won over 2,400 metres on Derby day itself in 2.32.9 — half a second slower than Super Smooth in the Derby the same day, and the two both carried 59 kilos. Are Hyldmo trains, Jacob Johansen rides.
He finished fifth in last year’s St. Leger.
The fourth and final candidate is Stall RH’s Mauna Queen (Inns Of Court), who was sixth in that very contest Light Garden won, with 63 kilos on her back, but who won the Kopparmärralöpning in Göteborg on 26 July and also took the Norsk Oaks last year.
Behind her stand Annike Bye Hansen and Elione Chaves — precisely the pair who have taken the last two St. Leger contests at Øvrevoll with If He Says So.
The race was opened to 4-year-olds in 2020, and since then the older horses have won four of the six.
The evening opens with the two Norwegian championships, both worth NOK 200,000 and both with five runners.
In the Norsk Mesterskap for 3-åringer over 1,600 metres the field is exactly the five who finished second to sixth in the Drømmemilen for Norwegian-breds on 23 August — and barely a length covered them.
Miss Hurricane (Quarterback) was the best of them, while Charlie Nosto (Mutajally) has the highest rating in the field and a sixth place in the Bucherer Dansk Derby behind Cosmopolitan to his name.
He won last year’s championship for 2-year-olds for Harry Nilsen, Jan-Erik Neuroth and Nora Hagelund Holm and can deliver the same “double” as New Man, Purple Ace and Big Chance.
The field also holds Another Beauty (Appel Au Maitre), who was second behind Super Smooth in the Skandinavisk Mesterskap for 3-åringer, Buck’s Model (Economic Model) and Skystar (Caprioli).
In the Norsk Mesterskap for 2-åringer over 1,170 metres, Dalero (Appel Au Maitre) lines up after winning on his debut on 2 September by a head from Mr Handsome.
Maria Robertz bred both him and Shogun (Moohaajim), and the field also includes Caprifol (Caprioli), Orkan Q (Quarterback) and the debutante Sweet Abigail (Mutajally).
Gina Mathisen and Willa Synøve Schou thus have a horse in all three feature races, and all three are by Quarterback: Orkan Q, Miss Hurricane and Super Smooth. The first two are even full siblings.
Stall GM already tops both the owners’ and the breeders’ list at Øvrevoll with NOK 1,162,123 from seven wins.
After the Norwegian championships and the St. Leger come a Sølvdivisjon over 900 metres on turf, Øvrevoll Hesteeierforenings Klokkeløp II for amateur riders over 1,600 metres and two Jerndivisjon contests over 2,400 and 1,100 metres — the last three all on the dirt track. First off is at 17.50.
