The race with no name that ended up becoming a Classic part of sporting history

The Racing Post's David Carr won Racing Writer of the Year on Thursday. Here, in one of three pieces David submitted to the judging panel, he looks back at the birth of the St Leger, Doncaster's most famous race

What a historic year 1776 was. On one side of the Atlantic the United States of America declared independence. On the other the English invented a horse race.

Of course, there is no confusing the two. One creation was a supreme example of 18th century enlightened modernism, a shining beacon whose example was followed worldwide and still looked on with affection in 2020. The other is the fourth-largest country on the planet.

Not that the world's first Classic had an easy birth, or one that attracted a huge amount of attention outside South Yorkshire. The race had no name, nor did any of its first runners. There is historical confusion over the first winning jockey.

Some have suggested it actually started earlier while the race's founder was misidentified in portraits for nearly two centuries.

There was occasionally an official misspelling of St Leger as St Ledger and a racegoer transported back in time would be taken aback to hear 'Sellinger' talk – back in the day the pronunciation of the race made the name sound like a villain in Poldark and history does not record how and when folk gradually switched to the modern version.

Then again, a 2020 fan would be in a constant state of bemusement were they to rock up in the mid-18th century – the past really is a very different time in racing.

There was no Pattern or indeed any obvious pattern: the era of Flying Childers, Gimcrack and Squirt was one of plates and challenge matches, heats and finals.

Horses were seasoned like vintage wine – like most of his contemporaries, the legendary Eclipse did not make his debut until he was five and Newmarket did not stage its first race for three-year-olds until 1756.

And stamina was the thing, the only thing. Contemporaries would have seen the Queen Alexandra Stakes as a sprint and the four-mile Doncaster Cup, which was instituted in 1766 and is the oldest regulated horse race in the world, was typical.

All of which shows how much of a radical departure it was for a town where racing had taken place since the 16th century to stage a one-off two-mile event, with no heats, and to restrict it to three-year-olds.

Enter Anthony St Leger, an Irish-born Lieutenant Colonel in the 124th Regiment of Foot who was educated at Eton and Cambridge, went on to be governor of St Lucia and also sat as MP for Grimsby for six years.

There is no record of his ever having made a speech in the House of Commons but as far as racing is concerned his actions spoke louder than any words could and he was the man responsible for an innovation that revolutionised the sport.

St Leger had moved to his wife's native Yorkshire in 1762 to live on the Park Hill Estate in Firbeck, where he established his own oval racecourse and trained the horses he bred at his stud.

Tony Barber: Anthony St Leger was an innovatorCredit: Pearl Drinkall

St Leger was a man of ideas. Tony Barber, who wrote a comprehensive history of his brainchild which was published by Raceform in 2016, says: "He was an innovator in a number of fields, he was a thinker.

"He was farming and was the first to come up with the idea of using bone residue for fertiliser to enhance the quality of soil."

And the most important seed he sowed grew into the world's first Classic as the race that came to bear his name.

Frankie Dettori won the 243rd running of the St Leger last year on Logician (grey, left)Credit: Edward Whitaker

But he did not stage it in his own backyard at Firbeck, before 1776, as some have claimed.

Barber says: "Gentlemen used to get together and have matches between their horses there. They have celebrations and the Bishop of Sheffield and the Earl of Scarborough come but it's a bit like the Loch Ness monster – they make a big deal of it but it's a bit of a myth.

"There is no evidence that it was the stamping ground for the first St Leger."

Rather, St Leger made the ground-breaking suggestion to fellow enthusiasts in 1775 of staging a two-mile race to test the best three-year-olds and it took place on Cantley Common the following year.

It was run under the unheralded banner of 'A Sweepstake of 25 Guineas' and was contested by six unnamed horses with the winner Alabaculia not known officially as that until many years later.

At the time she was simply 'Lord Rockingham's bay filly', which introduces another key character in the story.

The second Marquess of Rockingham won the first St Leger

Her owner/breeder Charles Watson-Wentworth, the second Marquess of Rockingham, was a Whig politician who served two terms as Prime Minister, during the second of which he pushed for an acknowledgement of the independence of the USA and initiated an end to British involvement in the American War of Independence.

But he was also hugely influential in racing and had been involved at York, where an early experimental two-mile race had failed to take off, before switching his allegiance to Doncaster, where he was very much the man who pulled all the strings.

Tony Barber wrote 'The St Leger: A history of the world's first classic horserace', published by RaceformCredit: Pearl Drinkall

Hence, when a meeting was held in 1777 at the Red Lion - which still stands in Market Square in Doncaster - to organise the programme for the following year, there was a clamour to name the race after him.

But he clearly believed that having been Prime Minister was enough for him to be remembered in history and insisted it should commemorate the man whose idea it was.

So the first running of the race under the name St Leger took place in 1778, switched across Doncaster to Town Moor as Cantley Common had been enclosed by the landlord.

Enjoy the sights of a modern St Leger day

Not that the man himself, who died in 1786, was particularly well remembered by history.

Barber recounts: "Until about 1970 a portrait of Anthony St Leger was used by everyone but it was actually his nephew, John Hayes St Leger.

"He was a bit of a gadabout and a gigolo, the opposite to the stalwart family man that Anthony St Leger was, and he was a friend of the Prince of Wales, who made George Best look sober.

"When the Prince of Wales had a portrait painted so did John St Leger so two portraits were painted of him, by Reynolds and Gainsborough, and racing books said it was Anthony St Leger."

But the locals know who he was and a blue plaque commemorating St Leger was unveiled by Frankie Dettori at Firbeck village hall in 2012.

Frankie Dettori unveils a plaque commemorating Anthony St Leger

And historical confusion also extends to the identity of Alabaculia's jockey, one John Singleton.

"In those days the racecards were very scant and there was no detail about the jockey so there has been some intrigue about who he was," Barber says. "There were three John Singletons and they all raced for Rockingham.

Read all about Frankie Dettori's latest St Leger victory

"The first one was a pioneer of the new professional jockeys, the last one won it on Orville in 1802 and died in Chester workhouse at the age of 91 but it seems clear now it was the second one who won the first St Leger. There are myths they were all related but there is no evidence for that."

The early years

Rather as with the USA, the St Leger's early years were far from plain sailing and it took quite a while for the new creation to catch on.

"It wasn't remarkable for 30 or 40 years," Barber reflects. "Commercially it didn't pass muster. There were various enterprises around the course, private stands that were built, which failed."

Two key developments made all the difference. The foundation of the Derby (in 1780), Oaks (1779), 2,000 Guineas (1809) and 1,000 Guineas (1814) established a Pattern that led up to the last and, in some ways, most important Classic.

And the end of the Napoleonic wars meant there was more money around, the number of subscribers increased and the St Leger became a huge occasion, the last event of the social season in the north, with cockfighting prizefights and countless other attractions adding to the revelry in the town.

Of course, a big crowd of merrymakers out for a good time is good news for pickpockets, swindlers and the like and John Fairfax-Blakeborough's Northern Turf History tells of a pre-emptive cavalry charge aimed at driving the criminal elements off Town Moor in 1829, ending with "150 sentenced to hard labour at Wakefield Gaol".

The start was also a perennial problem in those days, nearly a century and a half before stalls.

Five of the 19 runners were not ready when the flag went down in 1819 and were left behind. A false start was declared and the race was re-run, without first past the post Antonio, with victory going to Sir Walter.

Antonio was handed victory back on appeal to the Jockey Club and you have to feel sorry for Wrangler, who finished second in both runnings.

There was another re-run after a similar incident in 1823 and there is a suggestion false starts were being engineered in that era by jockeys, or by owners running untrained horses, in the hope of unsettling temperamental rivals.

Kew Gardens gave Aidan O'Brien his sixth St Leger success in 2018Credit: Edward Whitaker

But famous horses make famous races and a series of equine celebrities did their bit to put the race on the map in its first century, during which the distance was cut to 1m6½f in 1813.

Hambletonian (1795)

The best of the very early winners triumphed in 1795 and took the first of his two Doncaster Cups the very next day.

He won 17 of his 18 races in a career which continued until 1800 and was one of the final subjects of famous equine artist George Stubbs, who was 75 when he painted 'Hambletonian Rubbing Down'.

And he made a mark at stud, siring dual Gold Cup winner Anticipation among many other good horses.

Champion (1800)

The first Derby winner ever to follow up in the St Leger and thus land the two biggest three-year-old races of the season.

He had been making his debut at Epsom yet started favourite and won well. After finishing second and then first at York on successive days in August, his bullish owner/breeder Christopher Wilson apparently made so many bets on the colt for the Leger that he ran out of paper.

Having ensured all those bets were winners by triumphing at Doncaster he was sold to Lord Darlington, for whom he won three more times before breaking down.

He was the last Derby winner to take the Leger for 48 years, with the gruelling journey north on foot before the railways came making it mighty tough to beat the Yorkshire horses.

The Flying Dutchman (1849) and Voltigeur (1850)

The Flying Dutchman was an unbeaten winner of the 1849 Derby who had scored easily at 4-9 at Doncaster three months later.

Voltigeur took the Derby and Leger the following year, though his second Classic success was earned the hard way as he had to win a run-off after dead-heating with Russborough.

Yet just two days later he took his predecessor on in the Doncaster Cup and got the better of him, though the aggressive tactics adopted by his rival's jockey - reputedly the worse for drink - played their part.

The pair met again eight months later in a race known as 'The Great Match' in front of between 100,000 and 150,000 people at York, where The Flying Dutchman was ridden with more restraint and got his revenge by a length.

West Australian (1853)

After victories in the 2,000 Guineas and Derby, he became the first colt to complete the Triple Crown as he scored by a comfortable three lengths.

He won the Gold Cup the following year and went on to sire classic winners Jeune Premiere, Summerside and The Wizard.

Encke denies 2,000 Guineas and Derby winner Camelot the triple crown by taking the St Leger in 2012Credit: Edward Whitaker

Overseas versions

The St Leger has inspired equivalent races round the world, with France instituting the Grand Prix du Prince Impérial (now the Prix Royal-Oak) in 1861.

Gladiateur triumphed at Longchamp after completing the British Triple Crown in 1865 while Moonax took the Leger and Royal-Oak in 1994, 15 years after the race was opened to older horses.

Next came the Deutsches St. Leger, founded at Hanover in 1881 but switched to Grunewald in 1909 and run at Dortmund since 1947, bar two runnings at Dusseldorf in 1948 and 1949.

It has not been confined to three-year-olds since 2007 while Milan's St. Leger Italiano, which dates back to the late 19th century, was opened to older horses in 1994.

The Irish St Leger was founded in 1915 and Royal Lancer (in 1922), Trigo (1929) and Touching Wood (1982) won at both Doncaster and the Curragh, whose version has not been restricted to three-year-olds since 1983.

Watch Search For A Song win the 2019 Irish St Leger

Australian legend Phar Lap is among the winners of the VRC St Leger at Flemington while Trentham stages the New Zealand version and Japan's Kikuka Sho was worth more than £1 million to its latest winner World Premiere at Kyoto last October.

That would buy an awful lot of bone residue for the honourable member for Grimsby.

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