IT is not surprising that this year’s St Leger looked as good as it did. All the indications are that this year’s crop of three-year-old stayers is the strongest crop that we have seen in years.

Queen’s Vase winner Stradivarius followed up his Royal Ascot win by going to Goodwood and beating the older stayers in the Goodwood Cup, beating Gold Cup winner Big Orange into second place. He was the first three-year-old to win the Goodwood Cup since Lucky Moon won it 27 years ago. Admittedly, Stradivarius was receiving 13lbs from Michael Bell’s horse, but that’s the weight-for-age scale for you. It has been more or less thus for over 150 years.

There was one other three-year-old in the Goodwood Cup, Desert Skyline, who finished third. So the two three-year-olds finished first and third in that 14-runner Group 2 contest. Not only that, but Desert Skyline – sixth in the Queen’s Vase – went to Doncaster last week and, the only three-year-old in the race, won the Group 2 Doncaster Cup.

Rekindling was one of three three-year-olds in the Group 2 Curragh Cup, and he won it, staying on strongly to get the better of Wicklow Brave.

The three-year-olds only receive 8lbs from their elders in the Qipco Long Distance Cup at Ascot on Champions Day, and no three-year-old has won the race in it’s current incarnation, but it still may pay to look twice at the youngsters in this year’s renewal, a renewal in which the aforementioned triumvirate – Stradivarius, Desert Skyline and Rekindling – all hold entries.