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
Irish St. Leger 1915, and it was originally restricted to three-year-olds. The first horse to win both the English and Irish St Legers was Royal Lancer in 1922. The first Irish St. Leger winner to complete a Triple Crown (having previously won the Irish 2,000 Guineas and the Irish Derby) was Museum in 1935. The only subsequent horse to win all three races was Windsor Slipper in 1942. The Irish St Leger became an open-age race in 1983, and there have been several repeat winners since then. The most successful has been Vinnie Roe, with four consecutive victories from 2001 to 2004. The