Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/213

201 HORSE-RACING.] HORSE making continued to be a regular sport at Newmarket, and at York and Harubleton, 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 New market (3 m. 4 f. 93 y.) in 6 m. 40 s., and another trial over the Beacon course (4 m. If. 138 y.) in 7 in. 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 September 14 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 per formances 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 sweep stakes 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 1 2 stone, in heats over the same course ; one at York (which commenced in 1711) for six year old horses, 1 2 stone each, 4-mile heats ; one at Black Hambleton, Yorkshire (of which no regular account was kept until 1715), for five year old mares, 10 stone, 4 miles; one at each of the following places, Nottingham, Lincoln, Guildford, Winchester, Salisbury, and Lewes, for six year old horses, 12 stone each, 4-mile 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, purchased the present racing ground. In 1762 a second October meeting was added, in 1765 the July meeting, in 1770 the Houghtori 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 its present site at 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 The St Leger, who resided at Parkhill, near Doncaster. On the Leger. 24th September, during the Doncaster races, which took place annually in the autumn, at his suggestion a sweep stake of 25 guineas each for three year old colts and fillies was run over a 2-mile course ; there were six com petitors, 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 subscribers and ten starters, and was won by Mr Sotheron s Bourbon. It was not, however, until the succeeding year, 1778, that it was named the St Leger, in complement to the founder, at the suggestion of the marquis of Rockingham, on which occasion it was won by Mr T. Gascoigne s Hollandaise, another filly ; thus at the beginning, as well as a century later, the fillies, from Allabaculia and Hollandaise to Apology and Jannette, owing to the cool season of the year at which it is run, were found capable of taking their own part against the colts in the race. The stakes were increased in 1832 to 50 sovs. each, and the weights have been raised from time to time to keep pace with modern requirements. The Don- caster Cup, a weight for age race for three year olds and upwards, was established in 1801. The course is nearly flat, of an oval or kite shape, about If miles round the town-moor. It has been run in 3 m. 14s. by three year old horses, carrying 8 st. 10 K&amp;gt;, and fillies 8 st. 5 fib. The Derby and Oaks were established in 1779 and 1780, The the Oaks in the former and the Derby in the latter year. Derby It is true that in 1730 Epsom races became annual, but the prizes were nothing more than the usual plates run for in heats, the money required being raised by voluntary subscriptions, as well by the owners of booths on the downs as by the parties more immediately interested, whence arose the custom of charges being made by the lord of the manor for permission to erect booths, &amp;lt;fcc., during the race meetings. On the 14th May 1779 the twelfth earl of Derby originated the Oaks stakes (named after his seat or hunting box &quot; The Oaks &quot; at Wood- mansterne), a sweepstake for three year old fillies run on a course H miles long. The race on its inception was won by Lord Derby s bay filly Bridget, bred by himself her sire being Herod and her dam Jemima, In the fol lowing year the earl established a sweepstake of 50 sovs. each, half forfeit, for three year old colts. The distance was then one mile, but it has since been altered to a mile and a half, and is now run on a new course starting on a higher level than before, and joining the old course on the top of the hill. Being a very hilly or up and clown course, Epsom is excessively trying to horses not perfectly sound. On the first occasion of the Derby being run it was won by Sir C. Bunbury s chestnut colt Diomed by Florizel, son of Herod, who beat eight opponents, including the duke of Bolton s Bay Bolton and Lord Grosvenor s Diadem. These two races have since been run for regularly every year, the Derby, which before 1839 was run on the Thurs day, now taking place on the Wednesday, and the Oaks on the Friday in the same week at the end of May. Two XII. 26