Osborne First Woman to Win a British Classic

Saffie Osborne has ridden the winner of a British Classic, the first woman ever to do so. She guided Highwayman to victory in the St Leger Stakes at Doncaster on 12 September 2026. It came in the 250th running of the world’s oldest Classic.

In front from a quarter-mile out

Everyone knew history could be made, which is why the stands were so full. A crowd of 30,257 squeezed into Doncaster’s Town Moor. Few of them expected it to come as smoothly as this.

Osborne sent the improving Highwayman to the front over a quarter of a mile from home. From there her mount never looked in serious danger. A brief challenge from Enceladus a furlong and a half out came and quickly faded.

Highwayman held on to win at 11/1, ahead of Billy Loughnane on Enceladus, the 5/2 favourite. The result gave trainer Joseph O’Brien the first two horses home. Amelia Earhart, a 22/1 chance, finished third of the eleven runners.

A leap from Group 3 to a Classic landmark

Osborne had never won above Group 3 level before this Group 1 success. The victory was Joseph O’Brien’s second St Leger, after Galileo Chrome in 2020. It joined a line of firsts for women, from Hollie Doyle’s Group 1 European Classic on Nashwa to Alex Greaves winning the Lincoln at Doncaster in 1991.

“I’m in shock, I burst into tears,” Osborne told reporters afterwards. “This is the kind of thing that changes your life — no-one can ever take it away from you.”

Osborne, born in 2002 and the daughter of trainer Jamie Osborne, grew up around horses in Lambourn. She had no ride in the Leger at the start of the week; the booking appeared on the Tuesday. By Saturday she had rewritten her sport’s story.