As the horse racing calendar continues to produce major meetings, punters have plenty to be excited about as crowds are allowed to return to fixtures, and with the St Leger Festival taking place at Doncaster Racecourse in mid-September, we have lots to look out for.

Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at three key patterns to watch at the St Leger to support your horse racing free bets.

Godolphin and Charlie Appleby

While both may not travel to Doncaster, if Godolphin and chief trainer Charlie Appleby choose to send Hurricane Lane and Adayar, we would not look past them taking the prize home.

Hurricane Lane finished third in the recent Derby, losing two shoes along the way, but has bounced back in impressive fashion, outstripping Lone Eagle to win late in Ireland before again catching eyes at the Grand Prix de Paris with another triumph.

A step up certainly looks set for the horse, and he is showing positive signs coming into the back end of 2021.

With Epsom winner Adayar potentially being geared up for the Arc, Hurricane Lane could be the more likely to run at the St Leger Festival, and he has the turn of foot to go all the way and take the prize back to Moulton Paddocks.

Great Voltigeur momentum

While the pedigree of Godolphin's pair stands them in good stead for September's festival, having come in on the back of Group 1 wins, an interesting trend shows that only three of the last 20 St Leger winners ran at the top level in their previous outing.

Instead, nine winners in that time ran beforehand in the Great Voltigeur Stakes, a Group 2 race, with the most recent iteration taking place in August, providing plenty of clues for the upcoming race.

Handily for Appleby, he also has that front covered, with Kemari heavily fancied to take the cup in York, only for another Godolphin horse to take the crown in the form of Yibir, who beat out the competition to stride home.

While Hurricane Lane will likely be deployed as Appleby's main asset in Doncaster, it is certainly worth watching out for both horses coming in on the back of a Group 2 race in York, as well as the chasing pack in August's Stakes, with the likes of Youth Spirit and Sir Lucan flying the flag for Ireland.

Surprise package

Any race at any meeting can always see an outside bet come through the pack, and it is definitely worth watching at the Ledger, especially given its unpredictable nature regarding heavy favourites and their struggles to take the cup.

In last year's meeting, Galilieo Chrome made his first start in Group races and went on to win the cup, meaning we always have to scan for the next surprise package to take the Group 1 race by storm.

Yesyesyes was a classy winner in her first two runs, and has battled well further down the pack when required to fill punters with optimism that she could place in this year's St Leger.