Melbourne Cup entry Bondi Beach has won the G1 English Leger at Doncaster for trainer Aidan O’Brien on protest.

Unlucky when runner-up to Storm The Stars in York’s G2 Great Voltigeur Stakes last month, Bondi Beach (Colm O’Donoghue) benefitted from the intervention of the Doncaster stewards to claim victory.

Improving steadily from fifth turning for home, the 2-1 joint favourite became embroiled in skirmishes with the filly Simple Verse (Andrea Atenzi) inside the last two furlongs.

He finished a head behind Simple Verse but the fllly was subsequently demoted to second.

Immediately after the result was revised, Simple Verse’s trainer Ralph Beckett announced his intention to appeal the decision.

Supplemented at a cost of £50,000 last Monday, Simple Verse (8/1) was aiming to become the first filly to beat the colts in the classic since User Friendly in 1992.

Bondi Beach’s pacesetting stablemate Fields of Athenry, also a Melbourne Cup entry, finished third 1 3/4 lengths behind.

O'Brien, winning the St Leger for a fifth time, was attending the Irish Champion Stakes meeting at Leopardstown.

O'Donoghue was banned for two days for using his whip above the permitted level while Atenzi copped a three day suspension for the incidents in the straight.

O’Donoghue said the stewards had made the right decision.

"I got banged, and I got back into it. Then I got banged again, and I tried to get back into it,” he said.

“I was run off my line, and the rulebook says that mustn't happen. I tried to have a go and got impeded.”

Beckett was left dismayed and dumbfounded.

"I'm astonished, apart from anything else. There's no consistency in the rules," he said.

“One thing is for certain - we will appeal this. That's all I've got to say on the matter."

The St Leger win gave O’Brien some consolation after he was forced to scratch dual Guineas winner Gleneagles from a clash with Golden Horn in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown due to the soft ground.

Gleneagles has now gone without a race since taking the G1 St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, missing the G1 Sussex Stakes, G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and G1 Juddmonte International due to soft conditions.