This year is the last in which the historic St Leger meeting will include racing on a Wednesday. With the aim of giving more people an opportunity to come racing, in 2022/23 it will be staged from Thursday to Sunday.
The St Leger itself, the world’s oldest Classic, pre-dates the Derby by four years. It was first run in September 1776, when neither the race nor the winner had a name. Initially the Leger was run on a Tuesday, as part of a four or five day festival. From 1807-24 it took place on a Monday, the sport sometimes beginning on the preceding Saturday. Then it moved to Tuesday, the second day of a five-day meeting.
In 1845 it advanced to Wednesday and took root there, part of a top-class programme that lasted from Tuesday to Friday and drew the biggest racing crowds anywhere apart from the Derby. As employment conditions steadily improved, thousands of workers across Yorkshire used their holidays to come to Doncaster in Race Week.
Those dates lasted until the first post-war meeting in 1946. On Leger Day 142,000 people paid for entry onto the course and it’s estimated that 250,000 were present to see Airborne’s triumph. However, the following year the government asked for the St Leger, the Derby and the Grand National to be moved from their traditional midweek dates to Saturdays, in order to reduce workplace absenteeism. For that reason, the Leger meeting ran from Wednesday to Saturday in 1947-54 and 1958-61. At other times it reverted to the old pattern, which Doncaster councillors believed was more beneficial to the town’s economy. Eventually this became less justifiable and 1970 heralded a permanent change to Wednesday to Saturday.
The last Wednesday St Leger, in 1969, was won by Intermezzo. Lester Piggott had won the race four times in the 1960s but this time he was on the runner-up, the luckless Ribofilio, a beaten favourite in four English and Irish classics.
In the last decade, one of the Wednesday highlights has been the Legends race for ex-jockeys. Punters thought Christmas had come early when in 2015 bookies offered the recently-retired A P McCoy’s mount at 7/2. Victory was never in doubt.
The Legends race will be one of those moved from Wednesday to a new position on Sunday in 2023. One aspect of Doncaster tradition may be ending, but hopes are high that the new dates will make the meeting even more attractive as it nears its 250th birthday in 2026.
As a momentum of this occasion ALL attendees on Wednesday 7th September will receive a commemorative 'I am a Leger Legend' pin badge! Plus, all Leger Legends bookers will receive a promo code following this years event to secure one of the 1000 complimentary tickets available for the first Sunday of the St Leger Festival next year
Book your tickets now! Click here
