Racing in Doncaster is traceable back to 1595 but the magnificent Yorkshire racecourse's most notable distinction is that it is the home of the world's oldest Classic, the St Leger. This great race was first run in 1776, so this year sees the St Leger's 250th anniversary.The Doncaster Cup was first run in 1766 with the St Leger inaugurated 10 years later. We now revere the St Leger as the third leg of the Triple Crown but that was not the case in those days because there was no Triple Crown: the Derby was not created until 1780 and the 2,000 Guineas dates back only to 1809. In its early years, therefore, the St Leger was the greatest tests for three-year-olds. Notwithstanding that the Derby became a kind of holy grail for owners and breeders, in one sense the St Leger continued to stand supreme for many years, hence the long-standing summary of the Triple Crown: 'the fittest horse wins the 2,000 Guineas and the luckiest wins the Derby, but the best horse wins the St Leger'.The St Leger was not actually known as such for the first two years. It was the brainchild of Lt. Col. Anthony St Leger, who lived nearby at Park Hill (from which we get the Park Hill Stakes, the 'fillies' St Leger', which was first run in 1839). In 1776, Colonel St Leger organised 'a Sweepstake of 25 Guineas' to be run over two miles on Cantley Common, colts to carry 8 stone and fillies 7 stone 12lb. The winner was Allabaculia, bred and raced by the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, who lived locally at the palatial Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham.Rockingham's main claims to fame are the facts that he served two terms as Britain's Prime Minister in the period between 1765 and 1782, and that he commissioned George Stubbs' most famous painting, that of Whistlejacket, the winner for Rockingham of a four-mile race at York in August 1759.When plans for the 1778 race were being discussed (in the Red Lion Inn in Doncaster's Market Place) Colonel St Leger proposed that the race be moved to Town Moor (where it is still held) and named in Rockingham's honour. The Marquess agreed with the first part but demurred over the second, saying that the honour of the name should go to the race's creator. Hence the St Leger it became and proudly remains.From the early days, the St Leger and the Doncaster Cup (which pre-dates Ascot's Gold Cup by 41 years) were interlinked as the latter soon became the natural target for winners of the former. The 1791 St Leger hero Young Traveller, bred, owned and trained by John Hutchinson, became the first St Leger winner to go on to take the Doncaster Cup, a double also completed by Hutchinson's next St Leger hero, the 1794 hero Beningbrough.Many horses have completed the double since then, most recently Millenary, who gained the first of his two victories in the Doncaster Cup aged seven in 2004, four years after winning the St Leger. The first horses to complete the double, though, did it more quickly, taking the Cup the day after their Leger triumph. Hambletonian, yet another horse bred by Hutchinson, completed the same quick-fire double in 1795 before winning a second Doncaster Cup the following year, attaining the distinction one might hope for a horse whose grandsires were two of the most notable stallions in history, Eclipse and Highflyer.Although the term 'Triple Crown' did not come into common use until the 1870s, the first horse whose St Leger victory made him a Triple Crown winner was West Australian, who landed the hallowed treble in 1853 before winning both the Gold Cup and the Triennial Stakes at Ascot the following summer. West Australian represented two of the greatest names to be inscribed on the St Leger's roll of honour: his owner/breeder John Bowes and his trainer John Scott.Racing was not John Bowes's primary passion but he was nonetheless a significant player in the sport over an extended period. Racing horses whom he bred at Streatlam Castle near Barnard Castle, Bowes was a patron of John Scott's stable for decades, having his first runner (Maid of Lune at Malton) in April 1833 and his last (Noisy Girl at Scarborough) in August 1885. He bred and raced four Derby winners including West Australian and Cotherstone, who won the 2,000 Guineas and Derby in 1843 before being beaten a head by Nutwith in the St Leger. Cotherstone was a half-brother to Bowes' first Derby hero, the 1835 winner Mundig, and a full-brother to West Australian's dam Mowerina.The achievements of John Bowes' horses are more than enough to cement his position in racing history but his primary legacy is the Bowes Museum on the outskirts of Barnard Castle, which he and his cultured French wife Josephine built and filled (at a cost estimated at £100,000) as a permanent asset to the community and which, happily, remains in that role in perpetuity.Nobody will ever be more synonymous with the St Leger than John Bowes' trainer, John Scott of Whitewalls Stables, Malton. John Scott remains the most successful British-based trainer by number of British Classic wins. He trained the winners of 40 Classics, including the Derby five times, but it is in the St Leger that he stands supreme, courtesy of training the winner 16 times between 1827 and 1862.Scott was training near Pontefract when he first won the St Leger (with Matilda) but afterwards he moved to Malton, whence he re-wrote the record books. In the early years he would stable his horses at Pigburn, near Doncaster, during dry summers as the Malton gallops became so firm but in 1851, very much a man ahead of his time, he laid a tan gallop on Langton Wold so that his horses could exercise from their home base on a relatively kind surface, a fore-runner of the modern all-weather gallops.Another way in which Scott was ahead of his time was in the scope of his operation. Training for most of the leading owners including Lord Derby and Lord Falmouth (both of whom subsequently had their horses trained in Newmarket), he maintained a string of 100 horses, at a time when there were only approximately 1,000 in training in the whole country. His brother Bill was the north's leading rider for many years and still holds the record for the most St Leger winners ridden (nine, between 1821 and 1846). However, the pair parted company in 1844, John exasperated by Bill's ever-growing dependence on alcohol. This led to Bill gaining a special place in 'Leger' history.The win of Minster Son in 1988 was memorable because he was ridden by his breeder (Willie Carson). In 1846, Sir Tatton Sykes (the horse, not the proprietor of Sledmere Stud) did even better than that because, in a situation which could not happen under modern rules, he was both owned and ridden by Bill Scott.No longer having his brother's horses to ride, Bill Scott set up a stable of his own in Malton (in Highfield) where he owned the horses himself and employed William Oates as his trainer, recognising the reality that his drinking meant that he would need to delegate the early-morning supervision of the horses.Bill Scott bought the equine Sir Tatton Sykes as a yearling from a tenant farmer on the Sledmere Estate, Mr Hudson, who had bought his dam for £10. Scott paid £100 for the colt and named him Tibthorpe after a nearby village. The colt won the 2,000 Guineas under that name but then Scott, as a mark of respect for Yorkshire racing's popular local patron, re-named him Sir Tatton Sykes.But for Bill Scott's alcoholism, Sir Tatton Sykes would have been the first Triple Crown winner. Unfortunately, on Derby Day Scott had consumed a lot of brandy by the time of the race and, generally belligerent when drunk, was embroiled in an argument with the starter when the latter dropped his flag. Sir Tatton Sykes was badly left but still finished second, beaten only a neck, the proverbial 'certainty beaten'.In the run-up to the St Leger, Scott's friends kept a close eye on him to ensure that he would be sober enough on race-day to do his job properly, succeeding well enough for Sir Tatton Sykes to win by a half a length from the John Scott-trained Iago. In a lovely scene afterwards, the human Sir Tatton Sykes, then aged 75, led his namesake back to the winner's enclosure.Pleasingly, Highfield's contribution to St Leger history did not end with Bill Scott. Further St Leger winners were trained in the stable over a century later, William Hill's Cantelo winning in 1959 (a controversial, unpopular triumph as she had been a beaten 4/9 favourite under and over-confident ride in the Park Hill Stakes earlier in the meeting) for Captain Charles Elsey, and Peleid scoring in 1973 for his son Bill.Cantelo, incidentally, was the first Yorkshire-trained St Leger winner since Apology in 1874. Apology was bred and raced by the Rev. John King, the vicar of Ashby-de-la-Launde in Lincolnshire; trained at Ashgill, Middleham, by William Osborne; and ridden by Willam's brother John Osborne Jr, whose magnificent career included 12 Classic triumphs. A fabulous filly, Apology won the Fillies' Triple Crown (1,000 Guineas, Oaks, St Leger) as well as two great races at Ascot, the Coronation Stakes in 1874 and the Gold Cup in 1876.The second half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th proved to be a particularly fertile period for Triple Crown winners. Nine colts completed the treble between 1865 and 1903. Particularly concentrated was the 18-year period 1886 and 1903 when Ormonde, Common, Isinglass, Galtee Moor, Flying Fox, Diamond Jubilee (bred and raced by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII) and Rock Sand galloped their way into immortality. A Triple Crown guarantees a permanent place in the archives although Common is rarely mentioned nowadays, presumably because his career was so short: he made his debut in the 2,000 Guineas and the St Leger was his fifth and final start.Particular credit must be given to John Porter, the Kingsclere-based maestro who trained three of those Triple Crown heroes: Ormonde, Common and Flying Fox. He also trained three other St Leger winners including La Fleche who completed the Fillies' Triple Crown in 1892; and Common's half-sister Throstle, successful at 50/1 in 1894.La Fleche was a great filly, winning 16 of her 24 races including the Molecomb Stakes at two, the Cambridgeshire Handicap at three and the Gold Cup and Champion Stakes at four. However, two Fillies' Triple Crown heroines early in the 20th century were even greater: Sceptre in 1902 and Pretty Polly two years later.The three victories which comprised Sceptre's Fillies' Triple Crown only represented part of her Classic endeavour as she also won the 2,000 Guineas and finished fourth in the Derby. In the latter race she was reckoned by many to be an unlucky loser under a poor ride from her relatively inexperienced jockey Herbert Randall. As her Classic record implies, she was raced frequently by her owner/trainer Robert Sievier and consequently ended up with a wins-to-runs ratio (13 out of 25) which grossly understates her ability. On several occasions she was beaten by inferior horses, including in the Park Hill Stakes.Pretty Polly, owned and bred by Eustace Loder, was trained in Clarehaven in Newmarket's Bury Road by Peter Gilpin. She was campaigned more judiciously than was Sceptre, winning 22 of her 24 races. She too, though, was not 'wrapped in cotton wool' as is shown by the fact that she contested both the St Leger and the Park Hill at Doncaster, winning both easily.Clarehaven, now the home of John and Thady Gosden, remains a fertile source of St Leger candidates, its most recent winner being Prince Khalid Abdullah's Logician in 2019.In Wednesday's TDN, John Berry continues his tribute to the world's oldest Classic, highlighting some of the most notable winners of the St Leger, both human and equine, since the start of the 20th century.The post Celebrating 250 Years of the St Leger, the World’s Oldest Classic appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.