The origin of horse-racing cannot be fixed by any quotation of dates,
as none are extant to show by whom the first race was planned, the
terms on which it was run, the distance traversed, the kind of horses
which ran, the men who trained them, or the jockeys who rode them.
It may, however, be taken for granted that, as an English sport,
horse-racing began in homely fashion, and, in the days of old,
centuries ago that is to say, was a very different pastime from what it
is to-day.
Attempts have often been made to trace the beginnings of horse-racing,
but not with much success. It has been assumed by writers on the
subject, that there would in the first place be trials of strength of a
friendly description among neighbours, matches, perhaps, between horses
which their owners looked upon as being animals above the common run.
Scientific, or planned racing, in other words, the elaborately arranged
contests with which, as a nation, we are familiar is, it may be said,
a comparatively modern pastime. But the sport of horse-racing, as we
know it to-day, has undoubtedly been elaborated from those simple
trials of equine strength that took place centuries ago, which may, in
many instances, have been arranged to promote the selling of horses.
"Look ye, sir, let us try our horses against each other, and if yours
prove better than mine I'll buy it," is a saying that might represent
the idea entertained; and so, on an improvised course, ridden very
likely by their owners--"owners up"--at what are called catch-weights,
there would off hand be run a race of the kind indicated. At village
feasts, fairs, and other gatherings of a popular kind, as has been
often told, races of a rough-and-ready sort--precursors of the more
elaborate meetings with which the public are now familiar--were long
ago run.
Accustomed as we have long been to very complete records of racing,
we look with some impatience on the dry fragments and supposititious
statements, in which are embodied what is known regarding the birth
of horse-racing. Our public journals day by day contain more in one
publication than can be gathered from the historic records of the
country about the horse-racing of a hundred years, when the compiler
requires to carry his search back to days before good Queen Bess began
to reign. In those days neither "our racing reporter" nor "our sporting
correspondent" had come upon the scene.
We know more about the sports enjoyed in olden times by the people of
Greece and Italy than we know about those of our own country. There
was, as all who please may read, an Oaks in the Grecian Games of the
71st Olympiad, 496 years B.C. With the aid of Dr. Smith's classical
dictionaries, it would be possible to compile an interesting account
of those races, which afforded sport many hundred years ago to Greeks
and Romans. That horse-races were run in this country in the time of
the Romans is exceedingly likely. Not, however, till two centuries had
elapsed after the departure of the Romans from Britain, do we read of
much that is of interest about the horse and its uses in this country.
King Athelstan, it is recorded, received as a gift several running
horses of German breeding.[1] That King is said to have shown a great
love for the horse, and in his time running horses were much prized, so
much so that none were allowed to be sent out of the kingdom, except as
Royal presents. Athelstan's liking for horses was so well known, that
he received many gifts of fine animals, so that at the period of his
death, he was presumably in the possession of a numerous stud.
During the reign of Henry II. various documents record the fact of the
English people having become interested in horse-racing. At Smithfield,
where a market for horses had been established, races were run from
time to time, chiefly perhaps with the view of testing the capabilities
of these animals before purchasing them. "Hackneys" and "Charing
Steeds" is the description given of the horses raced in order to show
off their paces at Smithfield. That the running which took place
was other than would be incidental to buying and selling need not be
argued, there being no indication of any set race being run for a stake
of money or other prize.
Some historians of the turf, desirous of establishing the fact of these
contests being other than simple trials of speed and stamina--that they
were organised races, in fact--endeavour to prove their case by the
oft quoted description of an old chronicler, Fitz Stephen, who thus
describes what took place: "When a race is to be run by this sort of
horses, and perhaps by others, which, of their kind, are also strong
and fleet, a shout is immediately raised and the common horses are
ordered to withdraw out of the way. Three jockeys, or sometimes only
two, as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest. The
grand point is to prevent a competitor getting before them. The horses
themselves are not without emulation; they tremble, and are impatient
and are continually in motion. At last the signal once given, they
start, _devour_ the course, and hurry along with unremitting swiftness.
The jockeys, inspired with the thought of applause and the hope of
victory, clap spurs to their willing horses, brandish their whips, and
cheer them with their cries."
The writer of these lines, as all readers of history know, was the
secretary of Archbishop A'Becket, and was himself a monk of Canterbury,
and Drayton the poet bears testimony to the accuracy of what he has
stated.
The word "jockey," as used in the above extract, may denote a
professional horseman; but at the time in question the word was
applied generally to dealers in horses, and related, as has often been
argued, more to bargaining and pricing than to riding.
In the succeeding reign horse-racing as a pastime--that is organised
racing--appears to have been established, grafted most likely on the
practice already referred to of "showing off," by a few runs, the
paces of such animals as were exposed for sale. When the pastime was
first established, racing took place only at fixed periods, generally
during the Easter and Whitsuntide holidays. The racing of those days is
alluded to in an old metrical romance:
In Somertyme at Whitsuntyde,
When Knights most on horseback ryde;
A Cours let they make on a day,
Steeds and Palfraye, for to essaye
Which horse that best may run.
Three miles the Cours was then,
Who that might ryde him shoulde
Have forty pounds of redy golde.
Records of racing and notices of the horse as a courser begin after
this time to be frequent. In the latter part of the reign of Edward
II., and in the beginning of the reign of his successor, prices are
occasionally quoted for that class of horse.
Taking now a leap to the reign of "bluff King Hal," the belief that
horse-racing, as a pastime, had by that time taken root, and was
gradually deepening its hold on the affections of the English people,
can hardly be resisted. In a document relating to the Royal household,
mention is made of His Majesty's horses as follows: "Coursers, young
horses, hunting geldings, hobies, Barbary horses, stallions, geldings,
mail bottles, pack, Berage Robe, and stalking horses." In this list is
comprised the elements of the modern stud.
During the reign of Henry VIII. various enactments were made with a
view to improving the breed of horses. To make sure that the country
should possess horses of commanding strength and size, the proportions
of both sires and dams were regulated by an Act, one of the provisions
of which was that no person should put in on forest, chace, moor, or
heath, any stoned horse above the age of two years not being fifteen
hands high, nor under fourteen hands, on pain of forfeiting the
same. This Act, which discriminated the sizes in different counties,
was undoubtedly judicious in its results, which ultimately proved
beneficial to the general breed of horses throughout the kingdom. Some
curious regulations, devised by the King were from time to time made
public. He obliged all men of a given position, especially clergymen,
to keep a certain number of horses. Thus Archbishops and Dukes, were
enjoined in this reign to keep seven trotting stone horses of fourteen
hands in height for the saddle. Clergymen also who possessed a benefice
of £600 per annum, or laymen, whose wives wore French hoods, or velvet
bonnets, were ordered to keep one trotting stone horse, under a penalty
of twenty pounds.
In the time of Queen Elizabeth, public racing was not much in vogue;
still, in the days of "good Queen Bess," the race-horse continued to
be prized. Her successor on the throne, James I., was remarkable for
his attention to horse-breeding. He ordered £500 to be paid to Mr.
Markham for an Arabian, the first animal of that breed seen in England,
while in the time of the same king, races were run in many parts of
England for silver bells, notably at Gatherly, in Yorkshire, Chester,
Croydon, and some other localities. At this period the condition of
the competing horses began to attract attention, their wants being
methodically attended to, the weights to be carried adjusted, their
exercise gallops and sweats being also properly defined. The repute of
English race-horses during the reign of the first James became so great
that they attracted attention in France, to which country several were
exported, the methods of keeping and training them which then prevailed
here being adopted by the French.
In the year 1640, in the days of Charles I., the first Newmarket
meetings were inaugurated, and, as will by-and-by be shown,
horse-racing has been a feature of that famous town ever since. An
account is given in another chapter of the rise of horse-racing in
different localities, in which the further progress of the sport in its
earlier days will be alluded to.
Many apropos squibs and satires were published during this and the
succeeding reign of Charles II. One of these is entitled "Newmarket,"
and it shows that the town had at that date become celebrated as the
chief seat of horse-racing:
Let cullies that look at a race,
Go venture at hazard to win;
Or he that is bubbl'd at dice,
Recover at Cocking again.
Let jades that are foundered be bought;
Let jockies play crimp to make sport,
Another makes racing a trade,
And dreams of his projects to come,
And many a crimp match has made,
By bubbling[2] another man's groom.
Oliver Cromwell kept a racing stud, and was noted somewhat for his
patronage of the turf, no doubt with the view of personally studying
how best to improve the breed of English horses. Cromwell's master of
the horse was Mr. Place, who was the means of bringing to England a
celebrated horse known as the White Turk. Charles II. did more for the
improvement of the race-horse than any of his predecessors, he may be
said, in fact, to have "made it." During his reign horse-racing took a
really firm hold of the affections of the English people--a hold never
since relaxed and that is now firmer than ever.
It has taken long to bring the English race-horse to that perfection
indicated by the paying of two or three and even four thousand guineas
for a yearling, and ten thousand pounds for a three-year-old on the
mere chance of its winning a Derby, Oaks, or St. Leger, or a big
handicap; not to mention the giving of equally large sums for stud
horses, many of which have realised during the last ten or twelve years
what at one time would have been deemed fabulous prices. That attention
was turned to horse-breeding at an early period, seems pretty certain;
men, indeed, had begun to study "the niceties of the business" more
than three hundred years ago, their studies having resulted in the
lines of superb coursers now on the turf.
Briefly stated, the growth of the British race-horse has been pretty
much as follows. When Britain was invaded by the Romans, Cæsar found
plenty of horses, such as they were, in the country. As all know, the
horse is, and has ever been, widely diffused; great dubiety, however,
exists as to its origin or native land; its remains have been found in
the most unlikely spots, and some naturalists suggest Arabia as the
native region of the animal; but no distinct proof of its being so has
been brought forward, nor in ancient history is there any mention of
Arabia as being distinguished for its horses. No matter to what country
we are indebted for this useful animal, it is now found in nearly every
part of the world.
Much that is romantic has been written about the Arab horse. The
following is one account of its creation: "Allah created the horse out
of the wind, as he created Adam out of the mud. When Allah willed to
create the horse, he said to the South wind, 'Condense thyself and let
a creature be born of thee,' and the wind obeyed. Then came the angel
Gabriel and, taking a handful of this matter, he presented it to Allah,
who formed it into a horse, dark bay or chestnut. 'I have called thee
horse,' said Allah; 'I have created thee, Arab; I have attached good
fortune to the hair that falls between thy eyes. Thou shalt be the lord
of all other animals; men shall follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
Good for pursuit as for flight, thou shall fly without wings.'"
According to the Venerable Bede, the English people were in the habit
of using saddle horses so early as the year 631, but how these animals
first came upon our island no one has ever said, nor will any person
be ever able to say; those we read about in the early times referred
to, must have been very coarse and of small value compared to the
blood stock of the present day. But even before there came an infusion
of foreign blood, much care was evidently being exercised in mating
the sexes, and in the modes of feeding and treating various kinds of
horses; they seem to have been classified at an early age according to
the uses for which they were designed. In 1512, there were "gentill
horsys," superior cattle, a kind which made good chargers; there
were also "palfreys," or horses of an elegant description, trained
for the use of ladies and invalids of rank; "hobys" were horses of a
strong and active kind, held at one time in high repute and useful for
many purposes; "every man has his hoby," is a phrase that probably
originated from the commonness of these animals; the other kind was
deemed useful for the carrying of burdens. There were also chariot or
"charotte" horses, curtals or horses with a short tail, parade or show
horses known as "gambaldynges," as also the "amblynge" horse much used
by ladies.
A considerable impetus was given to horse-breeding in England in 1588,
in which year several fine Spanish horses were washed ashore from
some of the wrecked vessels of the Armada. These animals were reputed
to have been taken to Newmarket and other places with the view of
improving the native breed; but as regards this, and indeed most of
the so-called facts about the horse-breeding of that period, no very
reliable evidence exists.
It was, during the reign of James I., however, that the race-horse as
now known to us began to be developed. That monarch, determined England
should be foremost in the art of horse-breeding, purchased from a Mr.
Markham an Arabian horse that set a distinct mark on the national stud;
the animal is reputed to have cost £154, a very considerable sum of
money in the days of the first James. The horse proved a "duffer" on
the racecourse, but was doubtless of service in "blooding" the then
courser of the nation. The King, not disheartened by the want of the
quality of speed in the foreigner, purchased the White Turk from Mr.
Place. The Duke of Newcastle having taken a dislike to the Arabians,
endeavoured to write them down in his work, the "General System of
Horsemanship." His opinion of the horse was that it possessed size,
but, lacking substance, was not a weight carrier. During the reign of
James I., horse-racing began to grow into a popular sport, and the
rules and regulations then introduced for its conduct developed in time
into the elaborate system with which we are now familiar.
Of the Darley Arabian which laid the foundation of our modern stock of
racing horses, a brief account may not be without interest.
The Mr. Darley who obtained and sent to England this celebrated animal,
was a merchant in the Levant with a wide circle of acquaintances;
being a hunting man and Yorkshire to boot, he was possessed of good
knowledge of horse flesh. Knowing the value of the Arabian horse, he
exerted his interest to procure a famous example of the breed, and
was so successful as to obtain a very fine animal at a moderate sum.
The horse being quickly sent over to this country, was placed in
charge of Mr. Darley's brother at Buttercramb near York, where he soon
distinguished himself at the stud; he got Almanzor, Childers, Cupid,
Brisk, Dædalus, Dart, Skipjack, Uranica, Aleppo, as also brother to
Almanzor, which, however, from meeting with an accident, never ran on
the turf.
Before the advent of the Darley horse in the reign of Queen Anne,
other Arabians had been brought to England. The Leedes Arabian, the
sire of Ariadne, was first known as the Northumberland Arabian, his
name being changed on becoming the property of Mr. Leedes of North
Melford, Yorkshire. Foaled in 1755, that horse was purchased in Zemine
from the Immaum of Sinna in Arabia Felix, and was brought to England
along with another horse, known in Lord Northumberland's stud as the
Golden Arabian, by a Mr. Phillips, well-known in his day for his "good
judgment of horses." The Brown Arabian served in the Northumberland
stud until the year 1766, when he was used by Mr. Leedes. Although
this foreigner was not in great demand, he was the sire of some good
winning horses. Other foreign horses which have left their mark on
the English stud were Mr. Honeywood's White Arabian, and the horse
which was sire of Makeless, and also of Bald Frampton, likewise of
the far-famed Scottish Galloway, which beat the Duke of Devonshire's
Dimple. The Arabian mare (by the Cullen Arabian out of an Arabian mare)
was bred by the Duke of Cumberland. One of the finest of the Eastern
horses brought to this country was known as the Newcombe Bay Mountain
Arabian. Standing at John Giles's farm near Southgate, Middlesex, he
sired several very good horses.
The Cullen Arabian just referred to was brought to England by Mr.
Mosco, from Constantinople; the horse had been bred in the Royal stud,
and was of grand descent and greatly esteemed for his pure blood; he
was presented to the British Consul by the Emperor of Morocco, and
ultimately became the property of Lord Cullen. The Cullen Arabian,
after covering at Rushton in Northamptonshire (at ten guineas), died in
the year 1761. Another foreign horse of some repute was the celebrated
Damascus Arabian, foaled in 1754 and brought to England in September,
1760. He covered at various places, and was considered a very fine
specimen of the Eastern horse.
The following account of this animal was written on stamped paper and
exhibited at Smeaton, near North Allerton, Yorkshire, where he at one
time covered, and could be seen as lately as 1807. "He was bred by
the Arab who was Sheick or Chief of Aeria--a person who was noted for
his breed of horses, and was presented when a foal to the Bashaw of
Damascus, and given by him to a rich Turkey merchant at Aleppo with
whom the Bashaw had heavy dealings in money affairs. He was bought at
two years old by an English gentleman, in whose possession he continued
till his arrival in England."
The Damascus Arabian was the sire of Signal and other animals. The
Chestnut Arabian may be next referred to. He was brought to England
by the Earl of Kinoul, from Constantinople, having cost the British
Ambassador over £200. He got several useful race-horses, being sire of
Narcissus, Nimrod, and Polydore, the property of Lord Northumberland.
The fee charged was five guineas, with five shillings to the groom.
The pedigrees of some of our best race-horses can, it is said, be
traced back to Lord Lonsdale's Bay Arabian, sire of Monkey and Spider.
The name of the Coombe Arabian, sire of Methodist, may also be included
in the catalogue of those celebrities which came to England from a
foreign land. The history of Mr. Bell's Grey Arabian must be given at
some length. It was industriously circulated that this horse had cost
much more money in purchase, bribes, and transport than any animal
of the kind previously brought to England. He was bought at a place
that was thirty days' distance from the port at which he would have
to be embarked for England, namely, St. Jean d'Acre. Mr. Bell, his
ultimate owner, employed a person named Philip John, an Armenian, to
negotiate the purchase at any price of a first-rate Arabian to be
sent to England for breeding purposes. Philip John did his very best
in the way of bribing and bullying, and was granted the favour in the
end of purchasing Bell's Arabian, as the horse was called, out of
the personal stud of Berrysucker, a chief of Arabs, receiving at the
same time a certificate of its pedigree and of it being of the right
Jelfz's blood--a perfect descent and a true Arab steed of the desert.
The covering fee for this Arabian was ten guineas, and he stood at Mr.
Carver's, Goulder's Green, near Barnet, in the year 1765. He was the
sire of Sir C. Bunbury's Orlando and many other good horses. Nothing
romantic is connected with those horses; they were sought for and
purchased as a matter of business, and doubtless in the hope they would
some day leave an impressive mark on British racing stock.
Another foreign horse which proved of undoubted value to the British
stud, was the Godolphin Arabian.
Different tales have been told regarding the history of this notable
animal, particularly that he was found in the ignoble employment of a
Parisian carter, so little was the value put upon his possession at one
time. Although called an Arabian, more likely the horse was a _barb_,
as his "points" were chiefly of that caste. This animal was supposed to
have been foaled in the year 1724, and when he attained full growth he
stood about 15 hands high. The probability is that Godolphin was sent
from the Emperor of Morocco as a present to Louis XIV. He was brought
to England by a Mr. Coke, who gave him to Roger Williams, of the St.
James's Coffee House. The horse was presented by Mr. Williams to Earl
Godolphin, who kept him in his stud till the period of his death. The
Godolphin Arabian was the sire of Lath, one of the finest animals of
his day. In Whyte's History, in addition to other valuable information
utilised in these pages, a list of forty colts got by this Arabian is
given; as also of twenty fillies. "Every superior race-horse since
his time up to the present day partakes of his valuable blood." The
Godolphin Arabian "died at Gog Magog in Cambridgeshire in 1753, being
supposed to be then in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and is buried
in a covered passage leading to the stable with a flat stone over him,
without any inscription."
The roll of distinguished foreigners is not completed by the Godolphin
Arabian. Louis XIV. received another present from Muley Ishmael, King
of Morocco; that was a horse known afterwards as the Curwen bay barb,
from the name of the gentleman who brought him to England. He was not
much used, except in the case of Mr. Curwen's own mares. Among the
horses of the desert, which had been brought to England, there was
also the Sedley Grey Arabian, he was the sire of Coquette and also of
Bistern, who was the property of Lord Bolingbroke; there was likewise
the Toulouse barb, sire of the famous Ryegateman, dam of Cinnamon.
The Marshall of Selaby Turk, which played an important part among
the race-horses of the period, ultimately became the property of Mr.
Marshall, the stud-groom of King William, Queen Anne, and George III.
The Byerly Turk cannot be passed without some notice: he was ridden
by his owner as a charger in Ireland, during King William's wars, and
became the sire of Sprite, a really good horse, the property of the
Duke of Kingston. The names of Ancaster Turk, the Belgrade Turk, the
White Turk, can only be mentioned.[3]
Much scorn has been evinced at the poor part which was played by
some "horses of the East" on Newmarket Heath, when they ran in one
or two races, alongside, or rather behind some of our national bred
horses. Racing critics have perhaps been rather hurried in coming
to a conclusion, they have apparently forgotten that these Eastern
animals have not been accustomed to do what our horses are trained to
accomplish. Although these imported Easterns are not fit to figure
on a race-course alongside our English animals, they may yet become
of value, by invigorating the race-horses of a future day. What has
been done before may be done again. As is well known, many good judges
are of opinion it is "in-breeding" which is depriving the race-horses
of the period of stamina, and that, in consequence, it may prove
advantageous once more to resort to the fountain-head. Mr. Blunt, some
years ago, brought this matter before the Jockey Club, and he deserves
commendation for doing so. His argument was that the speed which
characterises the English horses of the turf was developed from Arabian
blood, and that we should, in short, begin again to breed from the Arab.
This idea has been ridiculed by many racing men; but much that is
useful and profitable has been born of ridicule, and there is no reason
why the experiment advocated by Mr. Blunt should not be tried, and,
moreover, meet with sympathy. Who can tell what the result might prove
to be? not of course in one year, or even four or five years, but
ultimately. Let the blood be given time to tell. The splendid animal,
the galloping machine which is now in use, has taken hundreds of years
to make; it is unfair to expect, therefore, that any great improvement
of our old stock, or the making of an entire new breed, can be
accomplished off hand. The blood of the Darley Arabian has had a long
descent in its two lines from his sons, and how it has become mixed
with the blood of the Godolphin horse and the Byerly Turk in a line of
splendid horses, any pedigree-table will show.
It has been argued that in the days of old there was really good
work to be done, as English horses, previous to the advent of the
illustrious foreigners, were "nothing to speak of," and, consequently,
in need of the very elements which the Arabian horses were formed to
supply, and which, having been got, now remain with us for all time.
As has been pointed out by competent authorities, there are horses in
the East, other than those of Arabia, which deserve consideration;
the difficulty is how to obtain good examples of them. It is supposed
that not one of the really fine Eastern Barbs or other horses can be
purchased for any amount of money. As a matter of fact stallions are
rare, being owned chiefly by the heads of tribes, who only can afford
to keep them; poorer persons are quite contented to have a mare--"a
mare," they say, "that produces a mare is the head of riches," and all
Arabs are strong believers in the proverb of their country that "the
foal follows the stallion."