There are 5 Classic Horse Races in the English Calendar :
[The 1000 Guineas] : Run at Newmarket since 1814
One mile, for 3 year-old fillies.
[The 2000 Guineas] : Run at Newmarket since 1809
One mile, for 3 year-olds.
[The Derby] : Run at Epsom since 1780
One mile and about 4 furlongs, for 3 year-olds.
[The Oaks] : Run at Epsom since 1779
One mile and about 4 furlongs, for 3 year-old fillies.
[The St Leger] : Run at Doncaster since 1776
One mile and about 6 furlongs, for 3 year-olds.
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1804-1850
Sami Chifney : Genuine Genius (1804)
'Druid' : Saddle and Sirloin (1848)

1851-1900
"Druid' : Post and Paddock (1856)
Silk and Scarlet (1859)
William Day : The Racehorse in Training (1880)
Joseph Osborne : The Horsebreeder's Handbook (1881)
James Lupton : The Horse : As He Was, As He Is, and As He Ought to be (1881)
William Day : Reminiscences (1886)
William Day : The Horse : How to Breed and Rear Him (1890)
R Black : The Jockey Club and Its Founders (1891)
Racing and Steeplechasing (Longmans 1892)
Bruce Lowe : Breeding Horses From the Figure System (1895)
G J Cawthorn & R S Herod : Royal Ascot - It's History and Associations (1900)

1901-1925
A E T Watson : The Racing World and It's Inhabitants (1904)
A Nightingall : My Racing Adventures (1907)
Sam Darling : Reminiscences (1914)
J F Sloan : Tod Sloan By Himself (1915)
J F Fairfax Blakeborough : Malton Memories and L'Anson Triumphs (1925)

1926-1935
Squire Osbadeston : His Autobiography (1926)
J S Fletcher : History of the St Leger Stakes (1927)
J F Fairfax Blakeborough : The Analysis of the Turf (1927)
Sykes of Sleamere (1929)
Charles Morton : My Sixty Years of the Turf (930)
T H Browne : History of the English Turf (1931)
J F Fairfax Blakeborough : Turf Who's Who (1932)
R C Lyle : Brown Jack (1934)
J F Fairfax Blakeborough : Paddock Personalities (1935)
Duke of Portland : Memoirs of Racing and Hunting (1935)

1936-1950
Eric Rickman : On and Off the Racecourse (1937)
S Donoghue : Donoghue Up (1938)
R C Lyle : The Aga Khan's Horses (1939)
T H Bird : Admirable Rous and the English Turf (1939)
Harewood & Ricketts : Flat Racing (1940)
R C Lyle : Royal Newmarket (1945)

1951-1965
John Hislop: Steeplechasing (1951 Hutchinson) - John Skeaping
Dick Francis : The Sport of Queens (1957)
John Welsome : The Cheltenham Gold Cup (1957)
R Mortimer : The Jockey Club (1958)
C Smirke : Finishing Post (1960)
John Hislop : Far From a Gentleman (1960)
Jack Leach : Sods I have Cut on the Turf (1961)

1966-1970
John Welcome : Fred Archer - His Life and Times (1967)
Doug Smith : Five Times Champion (1968)
F H Sasses : Themes on a Pipedream (1969)
Clive Graham : Hyperion (1969)
Michael Seth-Smith : Bred for the Purple - The History of the Monarchy and the Turf
(1969 Leslie Frewin)
John Welcome : Neck or Nothing - The Extraordinary Life and Times of Bob Sievier (1970)
Jack Leach : A Rider on the Stand (1970)
Richard Baerlain : Nijinsky (1970)

After 1971
R Mortimer : The History of the Derby Stakes (1973)
Michael Seth-Smith : Steve : The Life and Times of Steve Donoghue (1973)
John Hislop : The Brigadier (1973)
A Devonshire : Park Top : A Romance of the Turf (1975)
R Mortimer : The Flat (1979)
Michael Seth-Smith : A Classic Connection (1983)
Richard Baerlain : Shergar (1984)
Joe Mercer (1988)


[The National Horseracing Museum is at 99 High Street, Newmarket in Suffolk]