To Chester must be awarded the merit of having first established
regular meetings. Racing sport at that place has been traced back to
the year 1511, since which 380 years have elapsed, and the races at
Chester still flourish; the theatre of the annual sports being, as at
the time indicated, the Rood Dee, which had always been the arena in
which the Chester people displayed their powers. It was there where
they contested the palm in archery, pedestrianism, wrestling, and
similar sports, and also the place where they exhibited their skill in
mimic warfare.
Although for nearly a hundred years racing of a kind took place between
the walls of the city on one side, and the river on the other, it was
not till 1609 that racing at Chester came to be organised in something
like the shape of the racing contests of to-day. The first prizes given
appear to have been a bell and a bowl, to be run for on St. George's
Day; the donor of those gifts was the sheriff of the city, and the
trophies were presented with much civic pomp and pretence. Trifling
nowadays seem such gifts in the face of the thousands of pounds
of added money, and the sideboard pieces of silver and gold which
signalise many of the race-meetings of to-day throughout the three
kingdoms.
The races held at Chester were originally promoted by the traders who
carried on business there, such as the Company of Shoemakers and the
Company of Drapers, and were celebrated, of course, on the various
annual holidays of the far back times just mentioned. A quaint account
of the original races run on the Rood Dee was drawn up in 1595, by
"that Reverend man of God, Mr. Robert Rodgers, bachelor of Divinitie,
Archdeacon of Chester, parsone of Gooseworth and Prebend in the
Cathedral of Chester." This clerical worthy tells us that at Chester
"there is held every year three of the most commendable exercises and
practices of war-like feates, as running of men on foote, running of
horses, and shootinge of the broad arrowe, and the butt shaft in the
long bowe, which is done in very few (if in any) citties of England,
soe farr as I understand."
The same authority in his notes tells how the saddlers' ball,
"profitable for few uses or purposes," being a ball of silk, of the
bigness of a bowl, was changed into a silver bell weighing about two
ounces, "the which saide silver bell was ordayned to be the reward for
that horse, which with speedy runninge, then should rune before all the
others." In the notes it is also stated that the shoemakers' footeball
was before exchanged into silver gleaves. Without taking up space
with particulars which can be obtained in county histories, it may be
mentioned, in passing, that horse-racing was undoubtedly looked upon at
Chester as a national pastime more than two hundred and seventy years
ago. In the pageant for the inauguration of the first great festival
of St. George, horses played a distinguished part, the victors in the
various races being rewarded with the "cups and bels" provided. It
will interest lovers of the turf to learn that the silver bell was of
the then value of three shillings and fourpence.
In a "History of Horse-racing," published in 1863, appears the
following summary of the early history of the sport at Chester: "In
the year 1511, the silver bell of the value of three shillings and
fourpence was first run for as a prize; in 1609 or 1610, the bell was
converted into silver 'cupps,' the value of which is not stated, and
from this date the race was annually run for on the Rood Dee, was then
named and henceforth known as 'St. George's Race'; and in 1623 there
was another alteration made in the prize run for, as in that year the
three cups were changed into 'one faire silver cupp,' of about the
value of eight pounds. With regard to the prizes, the silver bell run
for in 1511 was apparently an absolute gift to the winner. The cups
offered in 1609, however, were only temporary rewards, held by the
winners for the space of twelve months, when the holders were under
bond to deliver up the cups to be again run for; but they retained the
amount in cash of the value of the cups as subscribed for by those who
ran horses for the prize, and which was a condition of the race. But
this again was altered in 1623, when the prize was once more to be held
'freely for ever by the winner.'"
Various alterations were from time to time made in the value of the
Rood Dee prizes; in 1629, the city companies contributed to St.
George's Race, to make up a certain sum of money; in the year 1640, the
sheriffs contributed a piece of plate of the value of £13 6s. 8d. to
be run for on Easter Tuesday, in place of a breakfast of calves' heads
and bacon, which it had previously been the custom for the two sheriffs
to shoot for on Easter Monday. In these early days of the pastime of
horse-racing, there was only one day in which a race took place, one
race only being run, and occasionally there was no lack of excitement;
in 1665, for instance, there was a "row," because "the High Sheriff
borrowed a Barbary horse of Sir Thomas Middleton, which won him the
plate; and, being master of the race, he would not suffer the horses of
Master Massey of Paddington, and of Sir Philip Egerton of Dalton, to
run, because they came the day after the time prefixed for the horses
to be brought and kept in the city; which thing caused all the gentry
to relinquish the races ever since."
Having established Chester's pride of place in the chronology of the
turf, the history of horse-racing as then carried on need scarcely be
further alluded to, except to show how gradual was the change from the
meagre sport of 1665 to the prolific pastime of the present period.
In 1745, Chester races, we learn, occupied four days, but only one
race took place each day; a case of linked sweetness long drawn out.
During the year just named, the four prizes contended for were the
St. George's Purse, of the value of £50, for which there was a field
of nine horses; the City's Golden Cup of £60, five starters; the
Contribution Plate of 50 gs., for which four horses ran.
_Lloyd's Evening Post_ of 21st March, 1780, gives the worth and
conditions of the chief race as then run, which are as follows: "On
Thursday, the 4th May, the Annual City Plate, valued £30, with a
purse of £20, given by the Corporation, for five, six-year-olds, and
aged horses; five-year-olds to carry 8st. 2lb., six-year-olds, 8st.
11lb., and aged, 9st. 5lb., mares to be allowed 3lb.; the best of three
four-mile heats. To pay five shillings to the clerk of the course, and
three guineas of entrance." The races decided at Chester continued to
multiply, as time went on, till the institution of the race for the
Tradesman's Cup, in 1824.
It would have been interesting to be able to chronicle more exactly
the rise of racing at Chester and other seats of the sport; but in
early days the records of the sport enjoyed were, in all probability,
never committed to paper, at all events they do not exist, so far as
is known to historians of the turf, in any consultative form. It would
be a sight worth seeing if the race for the St. George's Cup, with all
its surroundings of two centuries and a half ago, could be reproduced
on the Rood Dee "some fine morning in the merry month of May," to be
viewed alongside the struggle for Chester's greatest prize of to-day.
At the time when "the Cup" was instituted, the sport of racing had
attained a high position both at Chester and some other parts of
England, "the races" formed a meeting-place of the county people
which was largely taken advantage of for assemblies and other social
gatherings; but that is not the case to-day, when people arrive to see
the races by some forenoon train, and the moment sport ceases, depart
as hurriedly as they came.