Doncaster Racecourse its present location and in 1776 Colonel Anthony St. Leger founded a race in which five horses ran. This race has remained in existence and become the world's oldest classic horse race. During the first world war the racecourse was used for military purposes and substitute races were run at Newmarket from 1915 to 1918. Doncaster has the distinction of both starting and ending the flat season on turf. Every September, Doncaster hosts the prestigious four-day William Hill St. Leger Festival, which is acclaimed as the premier sporting occasion of the Autumn calendar. Doncaster has also taken over events whose
St. Leger family Anthony de Saint Leger, Knight of the Order of the Garter who brought Ireland under the Crown. He served as Viceroy of Ireland for five terms. A plaque dedicated to Sir Anthony Saint Leger can be found in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. William Ledger and Elizabeth May were married at St. Margarets, Westminster, London, on April 25, 1595. The first recorded spelling of the family name is possibly that of Adam Leger, which was dated 1279, in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire, during the reign of Edward I of England. Several generations of St. Legers fought in the Crusades.