The 99th Jamaican St Leger - Caymanas Park
Racing is a sport of very fine margins and for every set of ecstatic connections celebrating a winner crossing the line, there is another set of disappointed connections who are left to wonder what might have been. That’s certainly applies to the 2025 running of the Jamaican St Leger at Caymanas Park, where the delighted connections of I Dream Again were able to celebrate at the expense of the agonisingly unlucky Hansa. This race was run at a frantic pace with a finishing speed of just 90.9% for the winner and with the front 3 over a second ahead of the rest at the line, each of their performances can be upgraded given the way the race panned out.
As might have been expected, Bob the Builder went forwards and led the field as they galloped along the back straight. Much like his performance in the Jamaican Guineas, he wasn’t able to sustain his effort but what he did do was tow the runner-up into the contest and when Hansa hit the front with just over half a mile to run, it looked like he may have slipped the field. Having run the fastest individual split for furlongs 2, 3, 4, and 5, he was as much as 5-lengths clear as they straightened for home and he was still faster than the winner in the 8th and 9th furlongs. However, the petrol gauge quickly emptied in the closing stages, as his average stride length dropped to a race low of 5.90m as his average stride length dropped to 2.13 per second. Hansa recorded a final furlong time of 15.34s, ranked 6th in the field and over a second slower than the winner and exactly a second slower than he had been in the penultimate furlong. I Dream Again recorded an average stride length of 6.35m in the final furlong and by taking 0.45s out of the runner-up with every stride, he ground his way to the front, leading with just a couple of strides left to reach the line, eventually winning by a margin of 0.3s. This race is definitely one that got away from the connections of the runner-up.
The race has slipped away from Hansa, but that shouldn’t detract from a remarkable chase from I Dream Again and to a lesser extent, the 3rd placed Burning Hedge. They have both worked very hard to close the gap on the runaway leader and the pair have pulled readily clear of the Guineas winner Sensational Soul in 4th. Burning Hedge was the fastest horse in the 8th and 9th furlongs, running 13.98 and 13.55s respectively, but his effort petered out as he paid for those exertions and I Dream Again proved to be the stronger stayer. His closing furlong of 14.15s was the best of the 3 and most notably, he was able to maintain his stride length in the home straight, averaging 6.33 and 6.35m for the final 2-furlong splits under a perfectly timed Halledeen ride.