DONCASTER, England, — Leading Light produced a display of power to take the Ladbrokes St Leger for the most famous father-and-son team in racing.

Jockey Joseph O’Brien, supplying his father Aidan with his fourth winner of Britain’s oldest Classic, settled his mount in second place in the early stages as pacesetter Cap O’Rushes cut out a fairly sedate early tempo.

And although the leader tried to kick on from the front early in the home straight, the winner was always ideally positioned and he struck for home well over two furlongs out.

Galileo Rock, on his outside, tried to go with the winner and may have headed him briefly, but the successful 7/2 favourite simply had too many guns and put clear air between himself and his rivals on the run to the furlong pole that could not be overhauled.

Talent (8/1), who would not have been suited by the slow early gallop, stayed on determinedly for second though, a length and a quarter adrift of the winner, and three-quarters of a length ahead of Galileo Rock. Godolphin’s Libertarian hit top gear too late and finished fourth.

The winning jockey said: “He jumped a bit slowly and I could see a couple of horses going forward, I knew we weren’t going to go much of a gallop so I gave mine a kick just to get up there.

“He’s quite lazy in his races, he wears cheek-pieces and I got him going plenty early – I knew if I didn’t hit him until a furlong and a half out he would win.”

In victory, Leading Light helped banish the memories of the defeat of Camelot in the same race 12 months ago for the winning connections.

“You can never be confident about winning a Classic,” said part-owner John Magnier. “However we do hold him in high regard and even this morning Aidan was talking about possibly going to the Arc with him. He’s not in the race, so we’d have to supplement him.