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
The Great Match (horse race) Handicap, run at York, before finishing unplaced in his final three racecourse appearances, including the Ascot Gold Cup, and then retiring to stud himself. The Great Match (horse race) The Great Match is the name given to a match race between two of the most famous British thoroughbred racehorses of the 19th Century - Voltigeur and The Flying Dutchman. The race took place at York on 31 May 1851 for a purse of 1,000 sovereigns. The Flying Dutchman was a five-year-old, who had won the 1849 Epsom Derby and St Leger and, as a four-year-old, the 1850 Ascot Gold Cup.