O'Brien has four in wide-open St Leger Stakes

The Group 1 St Leger Stakes at Doncaster Racecourse on Saturday, the final classic race for 3-year-olds in England this year, was a race without a clear favorite as of Thursday morning.

In a field of 11, there were several colts and fillies who could claim the role of favorite before post time at 10:35 a.m. Eastern.

Capri won the Group 1 Irish Derby in his last start on July 1. Crystal Ocean won the Group 3 Gordon Stakes at Goodwood on Aug. 5 and seems to have improved as the season progressed.

Defoe has won four consecutive races and will have his Group 1 debut on Saturday. The filly Coronet won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes for fillies at Royal Ascot in June.

The $937,370 St Leger Stakes is run at 1 13/16 miles, by far the longest of the classic races.

Capri and Crystal Ocean were available at 7-2 or 4-1 with bookmakers on Thursday, slightly lower than Defoe, who was 4-1 to 5-1, and Coronet, who was around 6-1.

Capri is one of four runners in the field trained by Aidan O’Brien, who also starts the longshots Douglas Macarthur, The Anvil, and Venice Beach.

John Gosden starts Coronet, who was second to Enable in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks on Aug. 24, and Stradivarius, who will have no difficulty with the distance. Stradivarius won the Group 2 Queen’s Vase Stakes at 1 3/4 miles on turf against 3-year-olds at Royal Ascot in June and recorded a 6-1 upset in the Group 1 Goodwood Cup against older horses at two miles on Aug. 1.

Stradivarius was a 7-1 to 8-1 shot on Thursday.

WORLD RANKINGS

Arrogate has retained his position as the top-ranked racehorse in the world despite going winless in two starts at the Del Mar summer meeting.

The most recent standings of the Longines world’s best racehorse rankings were published Thursday, with Arrogate given a rating of 134, equal to his position in mid-August. Arrogate was second in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 19 in his only start between polls. On July 22, Arrogate was fourth in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in his first start of the summer.

In Thursday’s rankings, Winx, the star Australian turf mare, was unchanged in second place at 132, while Gun Runner, the dominant older horse at the Saratoga meeting, was unchanged in third at 127. Gun Runner is a joint third with Ulysses, who won the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at York Racecourse in England on Aug. 23. Ulysses had a rating of 121 in the August poll.

Enable, the 3-year-old filly who won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July and the Yorkshire Oaks at York on Aug. 24, was rated fifth at 126. She is the future-book favorite to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Oct. 1.

The rankings are compiled by an international panel of handicappers, including Tom Robbins, the vice president of racing at Del Mar.