St Leger Festival, Doncaster — Complete Guide
The St Leger Festival is the last great set-piece of the British Flat racing season and one of the oldest sporting fixtures in the world still run in its original form. Staged every September at Doncaster Racecourse in South Yorkshire, the four-day meeting draws racegoers from across the UK and beyond to Town Moor, a sweeping left-handed course that has hosted horse racing since the eighteenth century. At its centre is the Gr.1 St Leger Stakes, the oldest Classic in the world and the final leg of the historic British Triple Crown, but the festival built around it has grown into a far broader occasion: four distinct days, each with its own identity and card of racing, running from Thursday's fashion-forward Ladies Day through to Sunday's family-friendly Community Funday.
Across the week, close to 30 races are run for well over £1.5 million (US$1.9 million, at an indicative rate of £1 = US$1.27) in total prize money, spanning valuable 2YO sales races, historic Group contests, and competitive handicaps that draw large, well-punted fields. The meeting also functions as a genuine crossroads of the racing calendar: two-year-olds seen on Town Moor in September often reappear the following spring as Classic contenders, while the Doncaster Cup and St Leger themselves regularly decide end-of-season stamina and staying divisions.
Beyond the racing, the festival has become one of Yorkshire's biggest social occasions, with its own dress codes, hospitality traditions, and entertainment programme running across all four days. This guide sets out the history behind the meeting and a full day-by-day breakdown of the 2025 racecard, including every race's prize money, distance, and winning horse and trainer.
History and Origins
The St Leger Stakes is the oldest of Britain's five Classic races, first run at Doncaster in 1776 — 13 years before the Epsom Derby and 19 before the Oaks. It takes its name from Anthony St Leger, an army officer and Doncaster local whose idea for a sweepstake race over Town Moor grew into the world's oldest Classic horse race still run today. The very first running, contested for a sweepstake of 25 guineas each, was won by a filly belonging to the second Marquess of Rockingham; the race did not officially take the St Leger name until its second running in 1778.
The race is the final leg of the British Triple Crown, alongside the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby — widely regarded as the hardest feat in the sport, given the very different demands of speed over a mile in spring and stamina over nearly two miles by September. It has been achieved just 15 times in the race's history, last by Nijinsky in 1970. The closest challenger since was Camelot, who arrived at Doncaster in 2012 unbeaten after winning both the Guineas and the Derby, only to be run down by 25-1 outsider Encke in the final furlong.
Over nearly 250 years, the St Leger has outgrown a single afternoon into a four-day festival: Thursday's Ladies Day, Friday's Doncaster Cup Day, Saturday's St Leger Day itself, and Sunday's Community Funday.
The 2026 renewal marks the 250th anniversary of the race's first running. Roughly 30 races are run across the four days, spanning Group and Listed contests, valuable sales races, and competitive handicaps, all staged on Town Moor's left-handed course — one of the widest and most galloping tracks in Britain. Dress codes vary by enclosure: jackets for gentlemen and smart attire for ladies in the Premier Enclosure, smart jeans and tailored shorts permitted in the County Enclosure, and a more relaxed standard in the Grandstand.
Thursday: Ladies Day
Ladies Day opens the festival with the Style Awards alongside two Gr.2 contests for fillies — the meeting's most fashion-focused day, when the Premier Enclosure fills for the parade of outfits as much as the racing. It is also the most valuable day of the week outside Saturday: the £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes carries the second-richest purse of the entire festival after the St Leger itself, and a race whose alumni regularly go on to Gr.1 success the following season. Several of Thursday's races are run under the European Breeders Fund (EBF) scheme, denoted "EBF" in the race title. The eight-race card runs from early afternoon through to early evening, with live music and entertainment continuing after the final race.
• 'Carrie Red' EBF Fillies' Nursery Handicap — a handicap restricted to two-year-olds (£55,000 (US$70,000) | 6½f | 2025 Winner: Half Sovereign / K R Burke)
• the £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes, run commercially as the Weatherbys Scientific 2-Y-O Stakes (£300,000 (US$381,000) | 6½f | 2025 Winner: Calendar Girl / Owen Burrows)
• Gr.2 May Hill Stakes (£120,000 (US$152,000) | 1m | 2025 Winner: Aylin / K R Burke)
• Gr.2 Park Hill Fillies' Stakes (£150,000 (US$191,000) | 1m6½f | 2025 Winner: Santorini Star / W J Haggas)
• the Handicap, run commercially as the Oddschecker Handicap (£70,000 (US$89,000) | 1m2f | 2025 Winner: Devil's Advocate / John & Thady Gosden)
• the Nursery Handicap, run commercially as the JHA Architecture Nursery Handicap (£35,000 (US$44,000) | 7f | 2025 Winner: Wechaad / R Varian)
• the Nursery Stakes, run commercially as the Yates Drywall Ltd Nursery (£35,000 (US$44,000) | 1m | 2025 Winner: McMurray / George Boughey)
• the Handicap, run commercially as the Winners Wear Skopes Menswear Handicap (£35,000 (US$44,000) | 1m4f | 2025 Winner: Munsif / R Varian)
Friday: Doncaster Cup Day
Friday is built around the Howard Wright Doncaster Cup — first run in 1766 and the oldest race still run under official rules anywhere in the world — alongside a second Gr.2 test of juvenile speed in the Flying Childers Stakes, named after an eighteenth-century racehorse bred near Doncaster and regarded by some historians as the fastest horse of his era. Where Thursday rewards precocious speed, Friday's two Gr.2 races sit at opposite ends of the spectrum: the Flying Childers over the minimum five furlongs, and the Doncaster Cup over two and a quarter miles, a genuine test of stamina that has been won twice in the last two seasons by the same horse, Sweet William, trained by John and Thady Gosden.
• Mallard Handicap (£70,000 (US$89,000) | 1m6½f | 2025 Winner: Subsequent / A M Balding)
• Flying Scotsman Stakes (Listed) (£65,000 (US$83,000) | 7f | 2025 Winner: Avicenna / R Varian)
• Gr.2 Flying Childers Stakes (£130,000 (US$165,000) | 5f | 2025 Winner: Revival Power / T D Easterby)
• Gr.2 Howard Wright Doncaster Cup Stakes (£150,000 (US$191,000) | 2m2f | 2025 Winner: Sweet William / John & Thady Gosden)
• EBF Premier Fillies' Handicap (£70,000 (US$89,000) | 1m4f | 2025 Winner: Cape Flora / John & Thady Gosden)
• the EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes, run commercially as the Coopers Marquees EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes (£40,000 (US$51,000) | 7f | 2025 Winner: Classic Cuvee / R Varian)
• the 'Confined' Nursery Handicap, run commercially as the Tanbury Construction 'Confined' Nursery Handicap (£25,000 (US$32,000) | 6f | 2025 Winner: Sword Maker / S bin Suroor)
• the Apprentice Handicap, run commercially as the Danum Homes Excellence In Build Apprentice Handicap (£22,000 (US$28,000) | 6f | 2025 Winner: Charlie Mason / A W Carroll)
Saturday: St Leger Day
The festival's biggest day and the reason the whole week exists: the Gr.1 St Leger Stakes itself, the final Classic of the British flat season and the longest of the five, run over one mile and six furlongs. It is supported by two further Gr.2 contests either side of it on the card — the Champagne Stakes for two-year-olds and the Park Stakes for older horses — plus the wide-field, high-stakes Portland Handicap over the minimum trip, traditionally one of the most competitive sprint handicaps of the entire British season with fields regularly topping 20 runners.
• The Handicap, run commercially as the PJ Towey Construction Handicap (£70,000 (US$89,000) | 1m | 2025 Winner: Treble Tee / S & E Crisford)
• Gr.2 Champagne Stakes (£150,000 (US$191,000) | 7f | 2025 Winner: Puerto Rico / Aidan O'Brien)
• Portland Handicap (£100,000 (US$127,000) | 5½f | 2025 Winner: Eternal Sunshine / J S Goldie)
• Gr.2 Park Stakes (£140,000 (US$178,000) | 7f | 2025 Winner: Marvelman / A M Balding)
• Gr.1 St Leger Stakes (£700,000 (US$889,000) | 1m6½f | 2025 Winner: Scandinavia / Aidan O'Brien)
• EBF Maiden Stakes (£50,000 (US$64,000) | 1m | 2025 Winner: Pathein / E A L Dunlop)
• Mastiff Manor Handicap (£70,000 (US$89,000) | 1m2f | 2025 Winner: Fantasy Believer / E Walker)
Scandinavia's win, ridden by Tom Marquand, gave Aidan O'Brien a third consecutive St Leger, seeing off Rahiebb in a driving finish on soft ground.
Sunday: Community Funday
The festival's relaxed closer trades glamour for free family entertainment, headlined by the Leger Legends charity race, in which former jockeys — this year including Richard Johnson, Tom Scudamore and Olivier Peslier — return to the saddle, alongside a Gr.3 test for fillies and mares in the Sceptre Stakes. Where the earlier three days lean on Group and Listed sport, Sunday is built around handicaps and community access: admission is typically free or heavily discounted for local families, and the day functions as much as a wind-down from the week's drama as a serious form guide for the season ahead.
• I Love Julie Parkes Handicap, run in two divisions (£22,000 (US$28,000) | 1m2f | 2025 Winners: Stormy Monday / E Walker; Something Splendid / P W Chapple-Hyam)
• City Of Doncaster Handicap (£65,000 (US$83,000) | 7f | 2025 Winner: Rogue Diplomat / James Owen)
• the Handicap, run commercially as the 'The Classic Bookmaker' Handicap (£70,000 (US$89,000) | 6½f | 2025 Winner: Desert Falcon / Miss J A Camacho)
• Leger Legends Classified Stakes (£22,000 (US$28,000) | 1m | 2025 Winner: Shazani / S R Bowring)
• Gr.3 Sceptre Fillies' Stakes (£85,000 (US$108,000) | 7f | 2025 Winner: Fair Angellica / R Hughes)
• the Handicap, run commercially as the IPM Group Handicap (£35,000 (US$44,000) | 5f | 2025 Winner: Getreadytorumble / J Channon)
• the Handicap, run commercially as the Land Of Lights Festival At Gulliver's Handicap (£22,000 (US$28,000) | 5f | 2025 Winner: Lethal Nymph / P T Midgley)
All results above are from the 2025 renewal of the festival (11–14 September 2025). The 2026 St Leger Festival runs 10–13 September, with the St Leger Stakes itself on Saturday 12 September, and will mark the 250th anniversary of the race — a milestone Doncaster Racecourse has already flagged as a season-defining occasion, with celebrations expected to extend across the full four days rather than be confined to Leger Day itself.
Between them, the four days offer a genuine cross-section of British Flat racing: the precocious 2YO form of Thursday and Friday, the out-and-out stamina of the Doncaster Cup, the Classic drama of Saturday, and the community spirit of Sunday. Few meetings anywhere in the world compress that range into a single week, which is a large part of why Town Moor in September remains one of the fixed points of the racing calendar.