racing at Newmarket, which we know was current In 1640, but thoroughly established it there, and built a stand house in 1667, since which year the races have been annual. Mention is likewise made in the comedy of the Merry Beggars, played in 1641, of races, both horse and foot, in Hyde Park, which were patronized by Charles I., who gave a silver cup, value 100 guineas, to be run for instead of bells. Butcher, in his survey of the town of Stamford (1646), also says that a race was annually run in that town for a silver and gilt cup and cover, of the value of £7 or £8, provided by the care of the aldermen for the time being out of the interest of a stock formerly made by the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood.
In 1648 Clarendon tells us that a meeting of Royalists was held at Banstead Downs, as Epsom Downs were then called, “under the pretence of a horse-race,” so that horse-racing at Epsom was not unknown early in the 17th century; Pepys, too, in his Diary of 1663, mentions his having intended to go to Banstead Downs to see a famous horse-race. Cromwell is said to have kept running horses in the year 1653, but in 1654 he appears to have gone so far as to forbid racing for six and eight months respectively. After the Reformation in 1660, a new impetus was given to horse-racing, which had languished during the civil wars, and the races at Newmarket, which had been suspended, were restored and attended by the king; and as an additional spur to emulation, according to Youatt, royal plates were given at each of the principal courses, and royal mares, as they were called, were imported from abroad. Charles II. rebuilt the house originally erected at Newmarket by James I., which had fallen into decay. The Round course was made in 1666, and racing at the headquarters of the turf was regulated in the most systematic way, as to the course, weights and other conditions. Charles II. was the first monarch who entered and ran horses in his own name; and, besides being a frequent visitor at the races on Newmarket Heath, and on Burford Downs, near Stockbridge, where the Bibury Club meeting was held, he established races at Datchet. In the reign of James II. nothing specially noteworthy occurred, but William III. continued former crown donations and even added to them.
Anne was much devoted to horse-racing, and not only gave royal plates to be competed for, but ran horses for them in her own name. In 1703 Doncaster races were established, when 4 guineas a year were voted by the corporation towards a plate, and in 1716 the Town Plate was established by the same authority to be run on Doncaster Moor. Nearly a century, however, elapsed before the St Leger was instituted. Matches at Newmarket had become common, for we find that Basto, one of the earliest race-horses of whom we have any authentic account, won several matches there in 1708 and 1709. In the latter year, according to Camden, York races were established, the course at first being on Clifton Ings, but it was subsequently removed to Knavesmire, on which the races are now run. In 1710 the first gold cup said to have been given by the queen, of 60 guineas value, was run for by six-year-old horses carrying 12 stone each, the best of three 4-mile heats, and was won by Bay Bolton. In 1711 it was increased to 100 guineas. In 1712 Queen Anne’s gelding Pepper ran for the Royal Cup of £100 at York, and her Mustard, a nutmeg-grey horse, ran for the same prize in 1713. Again in 1714 her Majesty’s bay horse Star won a sweepstake of 10 guineas added to a plate of £40 at the same place, in four heats, carrying 11 stone. In 1716 the Ladies’ Plate at York for five-year-olds was won by Aleppo, son of the Darley Arabian. Racing and match-making continued to be a regular sport at Newmarket, and at York and Hambleton, and we also find a record of a race at Lincoln in August 1717 for a silver tea-board, won by Brocklesby Betty, as was the Queen’s Plate at Black Hambleton in the year before.
Between 1714 and 1720 there were races at Pontefract in Yorkshire for plates or money. The best of two out of three heats was to be the winner, provided the said horse was not distanced in the third heat—the distance post being 1 furlong from the winning post; and this appears to have been a usual condition. In or about the year 1721 Flying Childers is said to have run a trial against Almanzor and Brown Betty over the Round course at Newmarket (3 m. 4 f. 93 y.) in 6 m. 40 s., and another trial over the Beacon course (4 m. 1 f. 138 y.) in 7 m. 30 s.—which is fast even for a six-year old; but it is just possible that in those days the art of time-taking was anything but perfect. In 1721 George I. gave 100 guineas in specie in lieu of the gold cup at York presented by Anne, and the king’s or queen’s plates have been given in cash ever since. In 1725 a ladies’ plate was run for on the 14th of September by female riders on Ripon Heath in Yorkshire. In 1727 Mr John Cheney established the Racing Calendar—an historical list of all the horse matches run, and of all plates and prizes run for in England and Wales of the value of £10 or upwards in 1727, &c. No systematic records had till then been preserved of the running of the race-horses of the day, and it is only through the performances of certain celebrated horses and mares that we have any information of what actually took place, and even that is more or less of a fragmentary kind. At this time racing was thoroughly established as a national and popular sport, for there were upwards of a hundred meetings in England and Wales; but the plates or sweepstakes run for were for the most part of small value, as £10, £20, £30, £40, and sometimes £50. In 1727, according to Whyte, there were only a dozen royal plates run for in England: one at Newmarket in April for six-year-old horses at 12 stone each, in heats over the Round course—first called the King’s Plate course; one for five-year-old mares at 10 stone each, in one heat, and another in October for six-year-old horses at 12 stone, in heats over the same course; one at York (which commenced in 1711) for six-year-old horses, 12 stone each, 4-m. heats; one at Black Hambleton, Yorkshire (of which no regular account was kept until 1715), for five-year-old mares, 10 stone, 4 m.; one at each of the following places, Nottingham, Lincoln, Guildford, Winchester, Salisbury and Lewes, for six-year-old horses, 12 stone each, 4-m. heats; and one at Ipswich for five-year-old horses, 10 stone each. A royal plate was also run for at Edinburgh in 1728 or 1729, and one at the Curragh of Kildare in 1741.
In 1739 an act was passed to prevent racing by ponies and weak horses, 13 Geo. II. cap. 10, which also prohibited prizes or plates of less value than £50. At this period the best horses seldom ran more than five or six times, and some not so often, there being scarcely any plates of note except royal ones, and very few sweepstakes or matches of value except at Newmarket until after 1750; moreover, as the races were run in heats, best three out of four, over a course of several miles in length, the task set the horses before winning a plate was very severe, and by no means commensurate with the value of the prize. In 1751 the great subscription races commenced at York, the city also giving £50 added money to each day’s racing. At Newmarket there were only two meetings, one in April and the other in October, but in 1753 a second spring meeting was established, and in that year the Jockey Club, which was founded in 1750, established the present racing ground. In 1762 a second October meeting was added, in 1765 the July meeting, in 1770 the Houghton meeting, and in 1771 the Craven meeting. In 1766 Tattersall’s was established at Hyde Park Corner by Richard Tattersall for the sale of horses; it remained the great emporium of horses, and the rendezvous for betting on horse races, until 1865, when, the lease of the premises at the Corner having run out, it was removed to Knightsbridge.
We now come to a very important period—that at which the great three-year-old races were instituted.
The St Leger was established in 1776 by Colonel St Leger, who resided at Parkhill, near Doncaster. On the 24th of September, during the Doncaster races, which took place annually in the autumn, at his suggestion a sweepstake of The St Leger. 25 guineas each for three-year-old colts and fillies was run over a 2-m. course; there were six competitors, the property of as many subscribers,—a very small beginning, it must be owned. The race was won by a filly by Sampson, belonging to Lord Rockingham, which was afterwards named Allabaculia. In the following year the same stake had twelve
