The St Leger at 250: Britain’s Oldest Classic and the Race Modern Breeding Forgot

On Saturday, 12 September, a Thoroughbred race will be run for the two hundred and fiftieth time at Doncaster in Yorkshire. Founded in 1776, it has been missed only once in two hundred and fifty-one years, and it holds a distinction no other race can claim: it is the oldest of the five British Classics, and therefore the oldest great classic still contested anywhere in the world. Its name means little to French racing enthusiasts, yet a French horse won it in 1865, and England has not forgotten. Here is what unfolds on that day, and why this race has become the one the best horses avoid.

A race born the same year as American independence

On 24 September 1776, on Cantley Common south of Doncaster, five owners ran their three-year-old horses over two miles. The race had no name: it was recorded simply as a twenty-five-guinea sweepstake. The winner was a filly owned by Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquess of Rockingham. She carried no name at the time. Not until a racing publication of 1828 was she designated Allabaculia, the name by which she appears in the records today.

Two years later, at a dinner at the Red Lion Inn in Doncaster, the organisers sought a name for the following running. Someone proposed “Rockingham Stakes,” in honour of their host. The Marquess declined and instead proposed the name of the man who had conceived the race: Anthony St Leger, an Irish-born officer who had settled in Yorkshire after his marriage and had served as Member of Parliament for Grimsby. That same year, the race moved to Town Moor, where it is still run.

To set the date in context: the American Declaration of Independence was signed on 4 July 1776, two months and twenty days before this first running. At that moment, neither the Oaks (1779), nor the Derby at Epsom (1780), nor the 2,000 Guineas (1809) existed. The St Leger was first of the five Classics, and this is why it holds the title of dean among the world’s great horse races.

Two hundred and fifty-one years, two hundred and fifty runnings

The arithmetic may seem off, but it is not. Between 1776 and 2026 lie two hundred and fifty-one years. Only one saw no St Leger: 1939. War was declared on 3 September; the meeting was cancelled; the race was not made up. It is the only blank year in its history.

Otherwise, it has always found a way to be run, even if it meant moving. During the First World War, it was contested at Newmarket under the name September Stakes. After 1939, it moved to Thirsk in 1940, Manchester in 1941, Newmarket from 1942 to 1944, and York in 1945. More recently, it was run at Ayr in 1989 when ground subsidence made Doncaster unusable, and at York in 2006 during course renovation. The venue may have shifted; the race never did.

Gladiateur: the French horse France called the Avenger of Waterloo

This is the part of the story no one tells in France. In 1865, a horse foaled in 1862, bred and owned by Count Frédéric de Lagrange, won the 2,000 Guineas, the Derby at Epsom, and the St Leger in succession. His name was Gladiateur. He was trained in England by Tom Jennings at Newmarket, and he became the first foreign horse to achieve the English Triple Crown. Fifty years after Waterloo, the French press needed no time to find a nickname: when he then won the Grand Prix de Paris before a delirious crowd, he became the Avenger of Waterloo.

His record is one sentence: sixteen wins from nineteen starts, earning 980,300 francs. His end was less glorious. Gladiateur suffered from navicular disease, that small bone lodged at the back of the foot which remains today one of the chief causes of chronic lameness in horses. He was euthanised in January 1876, aged thirteen or fourteen. A life-sized statue stands in his honour at Longchamp, and the Prix Gladiateur bears his name.

One hundred and sixty-one years later, he remains the only French horse in the record books of the English Triple Crown. This detail alone makes the St Leger a French affair, even if the race is run far from Paris.

Since 1970, no one has completed the Triple Crown again

The English Triple Crown consists of winning in the same year the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket over 1 mile (1.6 km), the Derby at Epsom over 1 mile 4 furlongs (2.4 km), and the St Leger at Doncaster over nearly 1 mile 6 furlongs (2.92 km). Since the Guineas were created in 1809, fifteen horses have achieved it, three during the First World War in conditions many racing historians refuse to count, since all three races were run at the same course.

The last was in 1970. His name was Nijinsky. He won the Guineas by two and a half lengths, the Derby in the best time since 1936, and the St Leger by one length. Fifty-six years later, no one has done it again.

This is not chance, and the explanation is not sporting. It is economic. The breeding industry has directed selection toward fast, precocious horses, because those are what sell, and this type does not stay 2,900 metres. Result: the rare horses that win the Guineas and then the Derby do not go to Doncaster. Nashwan in 1989 and Sea The Stars in 2009 preferred to aim for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, richer and at a more convenient distance. Camelot in 2012 attempted it and was beaten, second at the post.

For 2026, the question is already settled: the winner of the 2,000 Guineas on 2 May is not the Derby winner. No Triple Crown is at stake on 12 September, and there will be none next year either if breeding continues on its present course.

What is at stake on 12 September at Doncaster

At the entry stage, the race boasted twenty-seven declarations, and the names most frequently mentioned almost all emerge from the same stables, which says much about the concentration of top-level racing in Europe. Two horses command the bookmakers’ favour: Christmas Day, winner of the Derby at Epsom for Aidan O’Brien, and Maltese Cross, second at Epsom and then winner of the Grand Prix de Paris. Behind them sits notably Enceladus, a son of Sea The Stars trained by Joseph O’Brien, unbeaten through the summer. The odds will shift until the off, and the final field will not be known until forfaits are declared.

Last year, on 13 September 2025, Scandinavia prevailed in a tight finish under Tom Marquand, resisting the challenge of Rahiebb and giving Aidan O’Brien his ninth St Leger and his third consecutive victory in the race. Which is to say that the Irish team starts with an advantage yet again.

The meeting runs from Thursday, 10 to Sunday, 13 September, with St Leger day on Saturday, 12: gates open at 10.30 am, first race at 1.10 pm local time, the Classic in the afternoon. The total prize fund for the race was around £700,000 in 2025, with nearly £400,000 for the winner. The winning jockey receives something no other race presents: a custom-embroidered racing cap.

In France, the same race is called the Royal-Oak

France has its version of the St Leger, almost as old: the Prix Royal-Oak, created in 1861 at Longchamp, also restricted to three-year-olds and intended to crown the best stayer of the generation. The difference comes down to one date. In 1979, France opened its Royal-Oak to four-year-olds and older. It thus became the first to abandon the logic of a staying classic reserved to a single generation, while England held firm.

The result appears in both records. The Royal-Oak has become a race for distance specialists, often older horses that return each autumn. The St Leger, by contrast, remains that strange moment when we ask three-year-olds for something modern breeding no longer seeks to produce. This makes it, among the world’s greatest races, the most anachronistic and perhaps the most fascinating to watch.

What we do not yet know

Three honest caveats. This article deliberately cites no odds: they shift until the off, and a favourite is not a winner. The number of entries is correct as of declaration day, not the final field, which tightens after forfaits. Finally, the 2026 field is given according to the British racing press, not the official starting list, published only in the days before the race.

This article contains no forecast. It explains what is tested and why this race has stood since 1776, not who will win on 12 September.

For further reading, our guide to horse racing betting details the types of wager and their logic, and our survey of racecourses allows you to situate the major French and foreign tracks in relation to one another.

Sources

Doncaster Racecourse (official site) for the 250th running, dates of the festival from 10 to 13 September 2026, Saturday 12 schedule, gates opening at 10.30 am, first race at 1.10 pm, and the race’s history. Great British Racing, the promotional body for British racing, for the dearth of Triple Crown winners since Nijinsky and its economic causes. France Galop for the history of the Prix Royal-Oak and its opening to four-year-olds and older in 1979. British racing press (Racing Post, Sky Sports) for the 2025 result and 2026 entries. Reference records for the first running of 1776, the race’s naming in 1778, the wartime moves, the 1939 cancellation, and Gladiateur’s career. Equirider is neither organiser nor partner of this race, and sells no betting products.