Scandinavia fended off the gallant late charge of Rahiebb to prevail in a pulsating finish to the Betfred St Leger at Doncaster.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Tom Marquand, Scandinavia had to dig deep to firstly edge in front of his dual Derby-winning stablemate Lambourn, before fighting off the challenge of another Ballydoyle runner, Stay True, on his outside.

Just when Marquand thought he had Town Moor Classic honours secured, the Ray Dawson-ridden Rahiebb (14-1) made a thrilling late thrust up the inside, but the 2-1 favourite Scandinavia just held a neck advantage over Roger Varian’s runner on the line.

After Joseph O’Brien’s Galileo Chrome in 2020, it was a second Leger for Marquand, who was stepping in for the ride in the absence of the injured Ryan Moore and suspended Wayne Lordan.

He said: “He’s got the most beautiful temperament.

“Aidan, Ryan and Wayne, everything that was reiterated to me was that he is just so straightforward. He’s so tough. It’s so lovely to be aboard today.

“He was tough today, he had to battle off Paddy’s (Twomey, Carmers) horse first and then obviously Stay True as well and then late on I was a little bit worried – it’s a long way up the straight on that ground when you’ve been trying to fend off good horses.

“He stays extremely well, as he showed at Goodwood, but I thought today was a real show of his tenacity on that ground.

“It was a good performance. He’s a beautiful mover and it’s probably fair to say he’s still got that little edge of innocence, not immaturity, innocence is probably right and it’s special to be aboard today.”

Marvelman makes light work of Park rivals

Oisin Murphy continued his hot streak as he steered Marvelman to a comprehensive win in the Betfred Park Stakes.

The jockey notched up four winners on Town Moor on Friday and had already struck gold in the opening handicap on Leger day before adding another victory aboard Andrew Balding’s 13/2 shot.

Marvelman made smooth progress to grab the lead from pacesetter Quinault with two furlongs to run, before easing away to win by three and three-quarter lengths in the Group Two heat.

King’s Gamble took second with Audience third, but Group One-winning 5/4 favourite Shadow Of Light never looked like getting involved, pulling hard early before finding little when the pace stepped up.

Puerto Rico made every yard of the running to shed his maiden tag in style and land the Betfred Champagne Stakes.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien and given a perfect front-running ride by Sean Levey, Puerto Rico (15/2) was sharply out of the stalls with 6/5 favourite Gewan on his heels in race run in a heavy rain shower.

Levey set only an average gallop and had plenty in reserve, picking up with a couple of furlongs to run and staying all the way to the line to hold off the late finish of Oxagon by a length, with Gewan dropping right away in the closing stages.

Without a win in five previous starts, Puerto Rico was cut to 12/1 from 40s by Paddy Power for the Futurity Trophy back on Town Moor over a mile next month.

Lauren Young rode the biggest winner of her career to date when providing Jim Goldie with his third win in four years in the Betfred Portland on Eternal Sunshine.

The 23-year-old had ridden the five-year-old mare to victory twice at Thirsk to give her enough penalties to creep in off bottom weight and Goldie had no hesitation in leaving her on.

Ploughing a lone furrow down the centre of the track until the furlong marker, the 12/1 shot held off the late run of Apollo One to win by half a length.