St. Leger family historical importance was Gen. Anthony St. Leger. He was born in 1731, probably in Kildare, Ireland. He was one of a group of noblemen and gentlemen who in 1778 gathered for a private dinner party in an upper room of the Red Lion Inn, which stands in the market square in Doncaster. A horse race, which was to set the pattern for classic racing throughout the world, had been christened the St. Leger at the suggestion of Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham. The race, a sweepstake for three-year-olds, had been born two years earlier in 1776, at the suggestion
Kersal Docks expanded and built its Dock 9. Castle Irwell later staged a Classic – the 1941 St. Leger Stakes, and was most famous as home of the Lancashire Oaks (nowadays run at Haydock Park Racecourse) and the November Handicap, which was traditionally the last major race of the British flat season. Both the Castle Irwell and New Barnes sites were named the "Manchester Racecourse" even though they were entirely within the borders of Salford. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s the track saw jockeys such as Scobie Breasley and Lester Piggott annually battle out the closing acts of the