"The great County of York" was famed at an early date for its seats of
racing. The "Turf Annals" of York and Doncaster have an historian in
John Orton, keeper of the match-book and clerk of the course, York. The
capital of the great county, as that gentleman tells us, was the first
to chronicle her sports, and to Yorkshire, "the British turf," he says,
"has perhaps been more indebted for the superior breed and present
perfection of the high mettled racer, than any other portion of the
kingdom."
Orton in his compilation--a most useful work, to which writers about
"the turf" have often been indebted--only deals with the accredited
figures of racing, when the results began to be chronicled in a
somewhat formal manner. But long before the date of the first race
given in his volume, "York, 1709," the sport of horse-racing had been
inaugurated, the prize as usual in those early days being a small
golden or silver bell, to be carried presumably, in all time coming,
by the victorious horse. In Camden's "Britannia" (1590) we are told of
horse-racing having taken place in a forest on the east side of the
city of York.
A horse-race it is recorded was run on the River Ouse when it was
frozen over in 1607, and also in the following year. There is plenty
of evidence as to the fact of horse-racing having taken place in these
early days (1590); but it was long after that period before the sport
was made to assume the shape which immediately preceded the business
kind of racing with which so many persons are familiar at the present
time.
Some racing commentators have asserted that racing began on Knavesmire,
so early as 1709, and that the races at once became successful. The
citizens, it is said, in that year "made a collection, with which they
purchased five plates, which were run for over Knavesmire, and from
that period to the present the annual meetings have been supported with
much spirit." But the first race contested on that now famous course
was in the year 1731. It was run on Monday, August 16th, being for His
Majesty's 100 gs. for six-year-old horses, etc., 12 st., four-mile
heats, the race being won by Lord Lonsdale's c. h. Monkey, by his
lordship's bay Arabian, dam by Curwen's bay barb; racing continued
throughout the whole week, four of the contests being in four-mile
heats, the other race being the Ladies' Plate of £60, for five-year-old
horses, etc., carrying 10 st. The racing, as established in Yorkshire
in 1709, took place over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, about one and a
half miles north of the city. From that year onwards, racing was kept
up over the same course, and the reason given for changing to the
Knavesmire was the races having on one occasion to be postponed on
account of the River Ouse having overflowed its banks.
It will, perhaps, give a good idea of the times now spoken of, when it
is stated that, during the running over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, on
Monday, August 2nd, 1714, when the race for a gold cup of the value
of £60 was being decided, an express arrived with news of the death
of Her Majesty the Queen (Anne), upon which the nobility and gentry
immediately left the field, and attended the Lord Mayor (William
Redman, Esq.), and Archbishop Dawes, who proclaimed His Majesty King
George I., after which most of the nobility set off for London.
In the year 1715, there was run at Black Hambledon, a race for His
Majesty's Gold Cup, value 100 gs., for five-year-old mares. This cup,
it has been explained, was originally free to be run for by any horse,
mare, or gelding not exceeding five years old; but in the reign of
Queen Anne, the conditions were altered, mares only being allowed to
run. The first Hambledon Gold Cup was won by Sir William Strickland's
horse, Sphynx. The Gold Cup continued to be run for apparently till
1775, when, by His Majesty's commands, it was ordered to be run for
alternately at York and Richmond.
Two hundred and eighty-five years ago, there was a racecourse at
Doncaster; there is a record, in the year 1600, of action being
taken to clear the course of some impediment that had been placed
upon it. So far back, indeed, as 1595, there were two racecourses at
Doncaster--there is said to be a plan or map, still extant, showing
the lines of the track. Various interesting notes of incidents in
connection with the Town Moor, in what by a little license may be
called its prehistoric days, might be gathered into a focus, more
particularly the particulars of how sport was encouraged in its
infantile aspects by the Corporation of Doncaster; but these, in the
meantime, for divers good reasons, must be passed over.
For the year 1728, we are in possession of the printed record of two
races run on the Town Moor; these were: "On July 22nd, a plate of
twenty guineas, for horses ten stone, four-mile heats, 'won at two
heats, by Captain Collyer's b. h. Drummer, beating five others;' and
on July 23rd, a plate of forty guineas, for six-year-old horses,
four-mile heats, won by Trentham, the property of Lord Gower, which
beat three others." In the following year, there was at least one race
run at Doncaster, while in 1730, there were three different four-mile
heat races contested; in 1731 and 1732, sport again went on, a contest
for "Galloways" having been instituted in the latter year, which was
continued for some seasons. In 1738 there appears to have been an
autumn meeting, of which, however, in the years immediately following
we find no further notice; indeed, for the four years preceding 1751,
there are no returns of races run at Doncaster in print, but, in that
year, three plates of £50 each were contested.
The Marquis of Rockingham comes to the front in 1752, when he gives
a plate of £50, to be run for by four-year-olds that had never
won £50--the trophy was taken by Cato, the property of Mr. Bowes.
At Doncaster, in the year 1755, we find a programme of five races
provided, and a match thrown in the bargain. In those days, sport was
taken in leisure, the programme being spread over the week, at the rate
of one race per diem. Matches, in 1756, seem to have been "all the go,"
as no less than seven were brought off on the Town Moor in that year,
three of them being won by the Marquis of Rockingham, who had by this
time begun to play a prominent part in the Doncaster struggles.