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
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