# Two St Legers in Two Days: Doncaster and the Curragh _The St Leger runs at Doncaster on Saturday 12 September and the Irish St Leger at the Curragh on Sunday 13. Same name, same trip, different race._ *Source: [https://stablebet.co.uk/racing-news/st-leger-to-irish-st-leger-2026/](https://stablebet.co.uk/racing-news/st-leger-to-irish-st-leger-2026/) ยท last updated 2026-09-12* ## The weekend of 12 and 13 September **The St Leger was run at Doncaster on Saturday 12 September 2026. The Irish St Leger is run at the Curragh on Sunday 13 September, at 4:35.** Two Group 1 races, a day apart, over the same trip of a mile and six furlongs, sharing a name that goes back to the same eighteenth-century original. It is the one weekend of the year when the two staying championships sit back to back, and most previews treat them as separate events in separate countries. They are worth reading together, because the races are not doing the same job. ### Saturday's result, and Sunday's field **Highwayman won the St Leger at 11/1**, ridden by Saffie Osborne for Joseph O'Brien, beating his stablemate **Enceladus (5/2)** by two and a half lengths, with **Amelia Earhart** third of the eleven runners. Osborne is the first woman to ride the winner of a British Classic. The Derby winner **Christmas Day**, the 7/4 favourite, finished outside the first four. Every race from the Doncaster card is in our [St Leger Festival results](/racing-news/st-leger-festival-2026-results/). **The Irish St Leger field is declared, and it has seven runners:** Arabian Force (William Haggas), Jan Brueghel (Aidan O'Brien), Leinster (Joseph O'Brien), Queenstown (Aidan O'Brien), Scandinavia (Aidan O'Brien), Tennessee Stud (Joseph O'Brien) and Trustyourinstinct (Joseph O'Brien). None of Doncaster's first three is declared at the Curragh, and neither is Christmas Day. Two of the seven have already won the Doncaster race: **Jan Brueghel in 2024 and Scandinavia in 2025**. That is the difference between the two races, described in the next section, showing up in one field: horses who won the three-year-olds' Classic in earlier seasons, now back as older stayers in the race that lets them run again. Riders and the best price on every runner are on our [Curragh racecard](/racecards/curragh/), and the result will be added to the [Irish Champions Festival results](/racing-news/irish-champions-festival-2026-results/) once the race is run. Doncaster's Saturday is the third of the four days of the [St Leger Festival](/festivals/st-leger-festival/), which runs from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September. The Curragh's Sunday is the second day of the [Irish Champions Festival](/festivals/irish-champions-festival/), which opens at Leopardstown on the Saturday with the Irish Champion Stakes and the Matron Stakes. So the Saturday is a crowded afternoon: the last British Classic of the season at Town Moor, and the Irish Champion Stakes card at Leopardstown running alongside it. For the meetings themselves, the [St Leger Festival tips](/racing-news/st-leger-festival-tips/) page covers the four days at Doncaster and how the Classic is usually won, and the [Irish Champions Festival tips](/racing-news/irish-champions-festival-tips/) page covers the two days across Leopardstown and the Curragh. This page is about the pair of races that share the name, and what the difference between them tells you. > **Responsible gambling:** nothing here is a tip. Prices move and horses come out. Stake only what you can afford to lose, set deposit limits and never chase a loss. [BeGambleAware.org](https://www.begambleaware.org). 18+. ## Same name, same trip, different race The difference is one line in the conditions, and it changes everything about how each race is won. **The St Leger at Doncaster is for three-year-olds only.** It is a Classic, the oldest of the five, first run in 1776 over 1m 6f 115y. A horse gets one attempt at it in its life. The field is a single generation, meeting at the end of the season that defined them, and the question is which of this year's crop actually stays the trip. **The Irish St Leger at the Curragh is open to three-year-olds and upwards.** It was opened to older horses and has run in that form since, over 1m 6f, and that makes it something closer to Europe's staying championship at the distance than a Classic in the British sense. Fillies and mares get a 3lb allowance. A horse can win it more than once, and horses do. That single condition produces two different races. Doncaster gets an untested generation asking a question none of them have answered before. The Curragh gets hardened older stayers, some of whom have been answering it for years, and the three-year-olds have to beat them. ### What the records show Both tables are read from our source-verified race records, so they show what the records hold and nothing more. Where a starting price or a rider is blank, we have not verified it rather than filled it in. Read the two lists next to each other and the structural difference shows up immediately. Every British St Leger winner in the record is a three-year-old, because it cannot be anything else. The Irish list runs through four-year-olds, five-year-olds and six-year-olds. **Kyprios won the Irish St Leger in 2022 as a four-year-old and again in 2024 as a six-year-old**, both for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore. That is a career shape the Doncaster race does not permit: a proven stayer coming back at the same target across seasons and beating the next generation twice. The 2025 running went to the five-year-old Al Riffa, for Joseph O'Brien and Dylan Browne McMonagle. At Doncaster the recent pattern ran the other way, towards one yard. **Aidan O'Brien won three St Legers in a row**, with Continuous in 2023, Jan Brueghel in 2024 and Scandinavia in 2025. Three in a row is a real pattern in a race where the same trainer keeps identifying which of his three-year-olds will stay, but it was three runnings, a small sample to bet from on its own, and the 2026 running went elsewhere: Highwayman won it for Joseph O'Brien, who also trained the runner-up. ## Reading the two together The practical use of the pairing is that the Saturday race tells you something about the Sunday one, and about the following season. A three-year-old that wins or runs well at Doncaster has proved it stays a mile and six at the end of a hard campaign. That is the exact quality the Curragh race asks for, and it is why Leger form keeps turning up in staying races afterwards. Scandinavia won the 2025 St Leger and went on to win the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2026. Rahiebb, who was second at Doncaster in 2025, also lined up in that Gold Cup. The horses who fill the frame in the last British Classic are the raw material for the next year's staying division, which is a good argument for paying attention to the placed horses and not only the winner. The reverse read is weaker and worth being honest about. A good older stayer winning at the Curragh tells you about that horse, not about the three-year-olds it beat, and it does not tell you much about Doncaster the following September. The Irish race is a championship where the best proven stayer usually turns up and wins; the British race is a puzzle about which unproven horse becomes one. ### Where the value tends to sit Neither race is a soft market. Both are Group 1s watched closely by people who have followed the staying division all summer, and the favourite in each has a strong recent record. **Al Riffa went off at 4/5 in the 2025 Irish St Leger and Kyprios at 2/5 in 2024**, which tells you how well the market reads a race where the best horse is already known. A short price and a bet at that price are different things. Doncaster in 2026 went the other way: the 7/4 favourite Christmas Day was beaten and Highwayman won at 11/1. Where the two races differ is in what can be mispriced. At the Curragh the mistake is usually made on the three-year-old: a Classic-generation horse taking on established stayers for the first time, priced on its Doncaster reputation rather than on whether it is ready to beat an older champion. At Doncaster the mistake is usually made on the Derby type stepping up in trip, where the step from a mile and a half to a mile and six is the one that finds out a brilliant horse who does not quite stay. If you are betting either, the non-runner-no-bet terms matter more than the headline price, because both races lose intended runners late and the Irish alternative is a real reason a Doncaster entry disappears. The [St Leger offers](/bookmakers/st-leger-festival-offers/) and [Irish Champions Festival offers](/bookmakers/irish-champions-festival-offers/) pages carry the verified terms for each. ## Two St Legers: FAQ ### When are the two St Legers in 2026? The St Leger was run at Doncaster on Saturday 12 September 2026, on the third day of the four-day St Leger Festival, and won by Highwayman at 11/1. The Irish St Leger is run at the Curragh at 4:35 on Sunday 13 September 2026, on the second day of the Irish Champions Festival, with seven declared runners. ### What is the difference between the St Leger and the Irish St Leger? The St Leger at Doncaster is restricted to three-year-olds, which makes it a Classic and gives a horse one chance at it. The Irish St Leger at the Curragh is open to three-year-olds and older horses, which makes it a staying championship a horse can win more than once. Both are Group 1 races over roughly a mile and six furlongs. ### Can the same horse win both? Yes, though not in the same year, because the two races are run a day apart. A horse that wins at Doncaster as a three-year-old remains eligible for the Curragh in later seasons, when it would be taking on the following generations rather than its own. The 2026 Irish St Leger field includes two Doncaster winners, Jan Brueghel (2024) and Scandinavia (2025). ### Has a horse won the Irish St Leger more than once? Yes. Kyprios won it in 2022 as a four-year-old and again in 2024 as a six-year-old, both times for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore. Repeat winners are possible because the race is open to older horses, unlike the Doncaster Classic. ### Which is the older race? The St Leger at Doncaster, by a long way. It was first run in 1776, which makes it the oldest of the five British Classics. The Irish St Leger dates from 1915. ### Where can I follow both? Our [St Leger Festival results](/racing-news/st-leger-festival-2026-results/) and [Irish Champions Festival results](/racing-news/irish-champions-festival-2026-results/) hubs carry each day's winners and starting prices as the cards finish, taken from the results feed rather than typed in by hand.