Mister Links looks a star buy

Much has changed since - not least a marked dip in prices at the upper end of the bloodstock market - but the desire among owners to land a massive pot with a relatively cheap horse remains as strong as ever.

Tomorrow's £200,000 St Leger Yearling Stakes was created to satisfy the demand, and Mister Links looks the class act based on two excellent efforts in Pattern company.

Richard Hannon's colt has had this race as his target ever since he battled on gamely to thwart his stablemate Tacitus in the July Stakes at Newmarket.

The ground was on the easy side there, but Mister Links handles fast ground just as well and ran a blinder in the Gimcrack Stakes at York when he finished strongly to go down by just half a length to the unbeaten Country Reel.

With handsome prize money right down to tenth this is one of the few races all year in which you can guarantee that most of of the 22 runners will be driven out to the line. The progressive Monsieur Bond ought to be in the mix as he bids to give Bryan Smart a second win in this race. Airwave and Striking Ambition also have plenty to recommend them, while the intrepid Hannon invariably comes mobhanded to these big Sales races and has two other dangerous strings to his bow in Presto Vento and Gems Bond.

Coconut Penang comes into the reckoning, judged on his fourth to Statue Of Liberty at Royal Ascot, and Tim Easterby's fast-improving Somnus also rates a mention as a likely longshot. But Mister Links has the form in the book to run a big race here and may not have finished improving yet.