St Leger

The St Leger is the last big classic of the flat season. I am hoping for a trouble free week and reasonable weather. With the going soft to heavy I expect quite a few non runners and that, along with the weather, could make the St Leger meeting a little trickier to trade.

The St Leger is one of the oldest classic races. The first race was held over on Cantley Common, two miles east of the current racecourse, on 24 September 1776. The event was organized by Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (a prominent politician and former Prime Minister) and was the idea of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony St. Leger (a former MP). On the day, the winning horse (from a field of five) was owned by Rockingham, with a horse owned by St. Leger following in second. In 1779, the race moved from Cantley to a new course on the Town Moor, where it remains to this day.