Champion trainer Darren Weir already has a strong hand for the upcoming Group I SAJC Australasian Oaks and unearthed an SA Derby contender on Saturday at Morphettville when the Yarraman Park bred and sold Leicester won the Group III SAJC Chairman’s Stakes.

Progressive Wanted gelding Leicester was a good last start fourth in the Listed SAJC Port Adelaide Guineas and upped the ante for this 2035 metre assignment for which he started favourite.

Leicester enjoyed a good run in transit for Damian Lane and held off the fast finish of runner-up High ‘n’ Dry to win by three-quarters of a length.

Leicester has the overall record of three wins and two placings from eight starts and has won nearly $150,000 for his owners who include bloodstock agent Paul Willetts, who bought him for a bargain $10,000 from the Yarraman Park draft at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale in 2015.

Leicester will seek to give Darren Weir a hat-trick in the Group I SAJC Derby as he has won it for the past two years with Howard Be Thy Name and Volatile Mix.

Leicester is the first foal of Defy the Odds (GB), a placed half-sister by Galileo to Group III winner Index Linked.

Defy the Odds has since produced consecutive fillies for Yarraman Park by I Am Invincible that have sold for $170,000 in 2017 and $300,000 in 2018.