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
Brighton Handicap Brighton Handicap The Brighton Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually from 1895 through 1907 at the Brighton Beach Race Course in Brighton Beach, Coney Island, New York and in 1910 at Empire City Race Track. Open to horses age three and older, it was contested on dirt over a distance of a mile and a quarter (ten furlongs). A premier event, in the late 19th and early part of the 20th century the Brighton Handicap, along with the Suburban Handicap at Sheepshead Bay Race Track and the Metropolitan Handicap at Morris Park Racecourse, were the big three