St. Leger Stakes Horse Race
Updated: 2025
When you think of the most difficult tests in all Thoroughbred horse racing, the St. Leger Stakes in Great Britain has to be one of the first to come to mind. The sheer length of the race and the fact that it comes close to the end of the long racing season make it a real test of the stamina and class of the few three-year-old standout horses that attempt it. But it is easy to understand why those horses do give it a try when you consider the kind of gold-plated glory that goes to the winner and the kind of celebrated good fortune that attends the winner’s connections.
The St. Leger Stakes is one of the longest races and one of the oldest. It was first run in 1776. When: 1 st Saturday in September at about 5:00 p.m. (local time) Where: Doncaster Racecourse, Doncaster, England. Type: Thoroughbred horse race. Distance: 1 mile, 6 furlongs, and 132 yards (2,880 yards or 2,640 meters). Track: Left-handed. Qualification: Three-year-olds, colts and fillies.
That translates to the whole country focusing on the St. Leger Stakes whenever a horse has triumphed in the first two legs, eager to see if it can go on and achieve the nearly unparalleled feat of winning all three. Even when the Triple Crown is not in play, the amount of focus and concentration thrown towards the race in England and around the globe is nothing short of remarkable. And a huge part of that focus and concentration translates into actual betting on the St. Leger Stakes, both by people who have come to the track itself and by those who are staying at home and betting online.
St. Leger Stakes History
In the late 1770s, both Anthony St. Leger’s work in the British army and his political life made him well-known. Yet it was horse racing, and particularly the race that would eventually bear his name, that would gain him the most fame. St. Leger held the first race that would become the St. Leger Stakes in 1776. He offered a purse of 25 guineas to attract the participants and held the race in an area known as Cantley Common.
The initial competition covered a distance of two miles and was taken by a female horse, who became known as Allabaculia. Two years later, the horse race known as the St. Leger Stakes was held for the first time at Town Moor. This location is significant because it is where the event takes place today, as well, with only a few notable interruptions in between. Eventually, the distance of the race was shortened to its current length of 2,921 meters—slightly over 1 ¾ miles, or one mile and six furlongs in horse-racing parlance.
Three-year-old colts and fillies qualify for the St. Leger Stakes. It is a flat race (no jumps), and the purse is 700,000 British Pounds. Doncaster Racecourse has a grassy surface, and the track is round. The race is run in September each year, marking it as the end of summer—quite a leap from a sea of summertime sports to autumn's worth of them.
Different Locations of the St. Leger Stakes
On a few occasions, the St. Leger Stakes has had to be relocated. The main reason for this has been wars. From 1915 to 1918, during World War I, the race was held at Newmarket Racecourse, which also hosts the first leg of the British Triple Crown, the 2,000 Guineas Stakes. Those years, however, the race was called the September Stakes.
World War II caused the longest stoppage of the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster. In 1939, there was no event due to the war. For the next six years, the race moved around to several different tracks.
- 1940: Thirsk
- 1941: Manchester
- 1942-1944: Newmarket
- 1945: York
In 1989, the first part of the racing meet at Doncaster showed drainage problems, and so Ayr hosted the St. Leger that year. In 2006, because of track remodeling at Doncaster, York took over and hosted the St. Leger. Doncaster has hosted the race in all the other years.
The Role of the St. Leger Stakes in the British Triple Crown
In fact, the oldest of the three races that comprise the British Triple Crown is the St. Leger Stakes. The Epsom Derby came along a few years later, and the last to be inaugurated was the 2,000 Guineas Stakes in 1809. At some point, racing fans realized that these were the three big prime three-year-old races and labeled the accomplishment of winning all three the Triple Crown.
The 2,000 Guineas is the first to be run of the three flat races that make up the English Triple Crown. It occurs in the latter half of April or early May of each year. The second race in the series is the Epsom Derby, which is held on the first Saturday in June. The final race is the St. Leger, which takes place in mid-September. Because of this scheduling, and because each of the three races is run only once a year, it is possible for a horse to win the first two races in the Triple Crown series and not achieve the accomplishment of the Triple Crown. If that happens, the horse is said to have achieved the feat of winning the first two races in the series and the last race in the series. And that has happened as recently as 2019.
Maybe the reason that the Triple Crown is so tough to manage is the fact that the British races involved escalate in distance. The 2,000 Guineas is only a mile long, while the Epsom Derby is about a mile and a half. At around a mile and three-quarters, the St. Leger outstrips them all.
Today, horses aren’t bred to run those long distances. A race like the St. Leger can seem like an anomaly, and many three-year-olds might shy away from it. Still, as recently as 2012, a horse (Camelot) came into the race with a shot at the Triple Crown, only to fall just short.
St. Leger Stakes holds the strange distinction of being the last leg of two British Triple Crown series. Both the 2,000 Guineas Stakes and the Epsom Derby have races attached to them that are contested by fillies—the 1,000 Guineas Stakes and the Epsom Oaks, respectively. By contrast, the St. Leger has no such counterpart race for females.
Consequently, it also acts as the final leg of the filly Triple Crown. This is because it is permissible for fillies to compete in the St. Leger, a race in which they have performed significantly better, on average, than in the 2,000 Guineas or the Epsom Derby. Nine fillies have accomplished the Triple Crown since its inception; the most recent one to do so was in 1985.
Famous St. Leger Stakes Races Through History
Champion, a horse, won the St. Leger. Then he followed it up by winning the Epsom Derby, becoming the first horse ever to win these two races in the same year.
The Flying Dutchman earned the title in 1849, and Voltigeur took the honors in 1850, narrowly edging out Russborough after a dead heat. In 1851, The Flying Dutchman bested Voltigeur, in one of the most celebrated match races in British history.
The St. Leger Stakes was won by Western Australian, who had previously captured both the 2,000 Guineas and the Epsom Derby. He became the first horse to win the elusive Triple Crown.
The victory in the St. Leger achieved by the filly Formosa was the capstone on her earlier triumphs in the 1,000 Guineas and the Epsom Oaks. Formosa is the first filly ever to complete the Triple Crown; her success was especially notable because the Triple Crown remains an elusive goal for colts, with only 11 winners in its 143-year run.
Flying Fox won the St. Leger, thereby matching his sire, Ormonde, who had won the St. Leger in 1886.
A royal affair: Diamond Jubilee, owned by the Prince of Wales, won the St. Leger.
Sceptre achieved the Filly Triple Crown by winning the St. Leger. It was the finale of a season in which she won four of the five British Classics for three-year-old fillies. No horse had ever accomplished such a feat.
Pommern, Gay Crusader, and Gainsborough all achieved the Triple Crown by winning the September Stakes at Newmarket, which was the wartime substitute for the St. Leger. Some racing historians dispute that these constitute actual Triple Crowns, however, because of the way that the war affected racing during that time, thinning out the lists of top competitors and leading to the holding of all three races at the same track.
Bahram retired undefeated in nine races after winning the St. Leger to complete the Triple Crown.
Hethersett was the favorite in the Epsom Derby but fell during a pileup with several other horses; he came back to win the St. Leger.
Completing the Triple Crown, Nijinsky won the St. Leger and in the process achieved that which the British may now only dream of, the last to do it on their home soil.
In the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee, the filly Dunfermline, an exquisite masterpiece owned by Queen Elizabeth II, triumphed in the race. Over the course of ten career races, she would win an astonishing nine of those contestations.
Oh So Sharp achieved the Filly Triple Crown by taking the St. Leger. No filly has done so since.
The St. Leger Stakes was won by Conduit. A month later, he would score the first of two consecutive triumphs in the Breeders' Cup Turf Classic.
Camelot's chances of winning the Triple Crown were taken away when Encke defeated him in the St. Leger. A year after that race, the trainer of Encke and the horse were banned from racing after it was determined that the horse had been given illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This caused a stir in the betting community surrounding the St. Leger Stakes.
Recent St. Leger Stakes Results
| Year | Horse | Jockey |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Kingston Hill | Andrea Atzeni |
| 2015 | Simple Verse | Andrea Atzeni |
| 2016 | Harbour Law | George Baker |
| 2017 | Capri | Ryan Moore |
| 2018 | Kew Gardens | Ryan Moore |
| 2019 | Logician | Frankie Dettori |
Festivities Surrounding St. Leger Stakes
Sponsored by the bookmakers William Hill, the St. Leger Stakes Festival is a four-day event that culminates in the running of the race. Legends Day begins with a race that includes many retired jockeys of great renown. Next on the agenda is Ladies Day, which showcases a best-dressed contest for the women in attendance.
Gentleman’s Day features a number of important stakes races alongside many entertaining diversions for fans. The day culminates in the contested race, and with it, the unfurling of a truly festive atmosphere among the sizable assemblage of spectators.
Betting on the St. Leger Stakes Horse Race
One of the most renowned equine contests in the Britain is the St. Leger Stakes. It is a country whose people are known to have a passion for not just watching but also for wagering on equine contests. Nonetheless, people from all over the world have a deep interest in the outcomes of not just the St. Leger Stakes but also in betting on the contest itself. Thus, it makes sense for you to learn what you can about the St. Leger Stakes so that you can have a basic understanding and a potential to also make some earnings on it.
Where Can You Bet on the St. Leger Stakes?
Real money St Leger Stakes betting is allowed on-site, but only a small fraction of those who have an interest in the race are present to make wagers in person. Fortunately, this is an era of online St Leger Stakes betting. That being said, not every betting site is created equal, to put it mildly, and the right site for you depends on several of your own personal preferences.
You might relate those specifications to the manner in which your funds are deposited and withdrawn. You might also want to look for sites that offer horse players and the St. Leger Stakes in particular some incentives, such as bonuses. But then again, it might just come down to how comfortable you are with the mechanics of the site in order to bet on the St. Leger.
Ultimately, your safest strategy is to compare various sites until you feel wholly at ease with one. After you reach that point, you can wager on the St. Leger Stakes without a second thought. Alternatively, you could peruse our "site comparatives" that highlight several trustworthy options for betting on the St. Leger Stakes.
If you are wagering on this illustrious event, whether over the internet or in person, you can divide your gambling into two essential categories: straight bets and accumulators. At their most elemental, straight bets are ones that involve only a singular equine to either triump in the contest or medal in the finishing order; bets of this ilk are what most people envision when they think of gambling on the horse races. Accumulators, on the other hand, are an entirely different kettle of fish.
What Kinds of Bets Can Be Made on the St. Leger Stakes?
A straight bet generally involves selecting a single horse that you like and wagering on them in some manner. Types of Straight Bets 1. Win Bet 2. Place Bet 3. Show Bet In a win bet, you select a horse and they must win the race for you to collect on your bet. If you were to place a show bet, your horse could finish in first, second, or third place and you would win (or collect) on your wager. Accumulators pay dividends quite well because they involve so many moving parts and can only be won if every section of the bet comes in correctly. Your favorite wager could be picked based on how much cash you have and whether you're angling for something a bit more guaranteed versus if you're really just hoping for a huge payday.
With the passage of time, anyone who has experience with betting on horse races develops some kind of strategy for selecting the winning horses. When we say simple, we mean that if you have never hiked before, you should choose an uncomplicated trail of short duration. You should also wear uncomplicated footwear—like an old pair of sneakers, the model of which you would be embarrassed to show to a department store shoe salesperson. You should expect to sweat and probably get some blisters, if not on the hike then afterward. Examine the latest performances of the horses to determine whether they are in respectable form. This information can be found in a race program or on the Internet.
What Strategies Work the Best for Betting the St. Leger Stakes?
Once you have acquired some experience in real money St Leger Stakes betting, you can begin to examine additional elements, such as the horse's pedigree. When it comes to a race as lengthy as the St. Leger Stakes, you require a horse capable of enduring running the full distance. The horse's sire and dam should be individuals who have shown they can run well in long races.
Also, the outcome of a race can often be affected greatly by the jockey and the trainer. If you can't make a decision between two horses, let the past performances of the jockey or the trainer help you choose. Look for those who have a history of performing well in the St. Leger.
In addition, the jockey and the trainer often have a huge bearing on the outcome of a race. If you are stuck between choosing two horses, you can use the performances of the jockey or the trainer as a tie-breaker. Look for those who specifically have performed well in the St. Leger in the past.
St. Leger Stakes
