{"id":142134,"date":"2025-09-16T22:40:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142134\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T22:40:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:40:15","slug":"the-atmosphere-was-unbelievable-booming-st-leger-overtakes-the-derby-to-become-britains-most-popular-classic-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142134\/","title":{"rendered":"The atmosphere was unbelievable&#8217; &#8211; booming St Leger overtakes the Derby to become Britain&#8217;s most popular Classic in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"Text__0__GlideArticleBody\">Nobody who was at Doncaster last Saturday will be in any doubt as to the health of the world&#8217;s oldest Classic \u2013 they needed only to heed the evidence of their ears.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Text__1__GlideArticleBody\">There was a huge roar as battle was joined in the 249th running of the St Leger, and it lasted until well after <a target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"Link__12__GlideArticleBody\" id=\"scandinavia\" class=\"sc-b2c32ca0-0 dLKaTt\" href=\"https:\/\/www.racingpost.com\/profile\/horse\/6102190\/scandinavia\/form\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scandinavia<\/a> had got the job done and added his name to a roll of honour dating back to Allabaculia in 1776.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Text__2__GlideArticleBody\">The evidence of one&#8217;s eyes was compelling too, whether it be the packed stands and infield or the traffic congestion and queues that meant Fred Done, founder of sponsors Betfred, had reportedly never taken so long to get to the track \u2013 although he was apparently delighted as it was a sign people were coming to watch the race and engage with it.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb0b4133-2 cgVXXE\">Read award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing, with exclusive news, interviews, columns, investigations, stable tours and subscriber-only emails.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to unlockRacing Post digital newspaper (worth over \u00a3100 per month)Award-winning journalism from the best writers in racingExpert tips from the likes of Tom Segal and Paul KealyReplays and results analysis from all UK and Irish racecoursesForm study tools including the Pro Card and Horse TrackerExtensive archive of statistics covering horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, pedigree and sales data<a href=\"https:\/\/www.racingpost.com\/subscriptions\/\" data-testid=\"Link__Subscribe\" class=\"sc-eb0b4133-7 yLNHi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Text__Login\" class=\"sc-eb0b4133-8 gRoJBC\">Already a subscriber?<a data-testid=\"Link__Login\" href=\"https:\/\/www.racingpost.com\/api\/auth\/login\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Text__PublishedDate\" data-article-publish-date-string=\"Published on 16 September 2025\" data-article-publish-date=\"16 September 2025\" class=\"sc-baabe586-8 isYWMR\">Published on 16 September 2025in<a data-testid=\"Link__PrimaryTaxonomy\" data-article-primary-taxonomy=\"St Leger festival\" class=\"sc-baabe586-10 fCsTLE\" href=\"https:\/\/www.racingpost.com\/news\/festivals\/st-leger-festival\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St Leger festival<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Text__UpdatedDate\" data-article-update-date-string=\"Last updated 17:25, 16 September 2025\" data-article-update-date=\"17:25, 16 September 2025\" class=\"sc-baabe586-8 isYWMR\">Last updated 17:25, 16 September 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody who was at Doncaster last Saturday will be in any doubt as to the health of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-142134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}