Doncaster: the world's oldest horse race

In southern Yorkshire England, Doncaster has hosted since the eighteenth century the most classic horse race still run in the entire world.

The downtown, seat of the most ancient horse race in the world, is comfortably walkable in a few hours.

The Doncaster Racecourse, home to the prestigious St Leger Stakes since 1776, remains one of the most prestigious and historic racetracks in all of northern England.

A few minutes away, the imposing Doncaster Cathedral, a Gothic Victorian masterpiece designed by architect George Gilbert Scott, dominates the skyline of the entire city center.

Proceeding to the museum, one visits the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, which chronicles in detail the city's railway history, once a key center for British locomotive construction.

As evening approaches, the lively historic market district animates pubs and restaurants in elegantly restored Victorian buildings.

The St Leger Stakes, contested at Doncaster without interruption since 1776, remains the oldest of the five English classic horse races, even preceding the celebrated and prestigious Epsom Derby by several years.

Doncaster, affectionately nicknamed 'Donny' by locals, was for much of the twentieth century an important centre for railway locomotive manufacturing, an industry now largely vanished.