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
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.