Editing Horse racing in Great Britain (section)

==History==

===Roman era to Middle Ages===
Horses were used as beasts of burden in pre-Roman times, but it is thought that the first horse races to take place in Britain were organised by soldiers of the [[Roman Empire]] in [[Yorkshire]] around 200 AD,{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=19}} although whether the Romans actually introduced the sport is a matter of conjecture.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=2}} It is believed that Romans at the encampment at [[Wetherby]] matched horses against Arabian horses brought to England by Emperor [[Septimius Severus]].{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=8}} Traces of racecourses dating to the Roman occupation exist, but records are scarce.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=2}}

The [[Venerable Bede]] reports that the English began to saddle their horses about the year 631.
<ref name=SpMag179210>{{cite magazine |title=Origin and Progress of Horses and Horse-racing in this island |magazine=[[The Sporting Magazine]]; Or Monthly Calendar of the transactions of the Turf, the Chace, And every other Diversion Interesting to The Man of Pleasure and Enterprize |location=[[London]] |date=October 1792 }}</ref>

The earliest written mention of "running-horses" is a record of Hugh, from the French [[House of Capet]], gifting some as a present to [[King Athelstan]] of England in the 9th/10th century.{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=19}} During Athelstan's reign a ban was placed on the export of English horses, such was supposed to be their superiority to continental ones. Continental ones were still permitted for import, and many were brought to England by [[William the Conqueror]]. [[Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury]] introduced Spanish stallions to the country.<ref name=SpMag179210/>

The first recorded race meetings were during the reign of [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] at [[Smithfield, London]], during the annual St Bartholomew's [[fair|horse fair]]. The event is attested by [[William Fitzstephen]] writing at some time after 1174 and the poet [[Michael Drayton|Drayton]].{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=19}} 
 
During the [[Crusades]], horse-breeding improved and horseback contests were popular, but in the form of tournaments, rather than races.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=2}} [[John, King of England|King John]] established a stud at [[Eltham]], Kent{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=2}} and the [[Middle English]] romance [[Beves of Hamtoun (poem)|Sir Bevis of Hampton]] has couplets which refer to races taking place in the time of [[Richard I]].{{sfn|Whyte|1840|pp=21–22}}

For the next three centuries there are numerous records of Kings of England keeping 'running horses'. [[Edward III]] bought horses at £13 6s 8d each, and was also gifted two by the [[King of Navarre]].  The royal stud continued to grow throughout the reign of [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]].{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=22}}

[[File:Kiplingcotes Junction, South Dalton - geograph.org.uk - 183331.jpg|thumb|right|[[Kiplingcotes]], Yorkshire, home of the world's oldest horse race]]

===16th Century===
Records become more substantial during the time of [[Henry VIII]]. He passed a number of laws relating to the breeding of horses{{sfn|Whyte|1840|pp=22–26}} and also [[import]]ed a large number of [[Stallion (horse)|stallions]] and [[Mare (horse)|mares]] for [[breed]]ing from Spain, Italy and the East. He kept a training establishment at [[Greenwich]] and the stud at [[Eltham]].<ref name="Waterman-p. 71" /> and founded the Royal Paddock at [[Hampton Court]], where he kept mares and a "Barb worth his weight in silver", which has been given to him by the [[Marquis of Mantua]].{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=3}}

Formal race meetings began to be instigated too. It is believed that the first occurrence of a [[trophy]] being presented to the winner of a race was in 1512 by organisers of a fair in [[Chester]]{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=3}} and was a small wooden ball decorated with [[flower]]s. Meanwhile, the oldest horse race still in existence, the [[Kiplingcotes Derby]] was first run in 1519. The [[Carlisle Bell]]s, reputedly the oldest sporting trophy in the world, were first competed for in the 16th century, in a race that still bears their name.  One of the bells is inscribed "The sweftes horse thes bel tak" ("The swiftest horse takes this bell").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.carlisle-races.co.uk/bellplateday.asp |title=Bell and Plate Day |publisher=[[Carlisle Racecourse]] |access-date=22 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425003448/http://www.carlisle-races.co.uk/bellplateday.asp |archive-date=25 April 2013 }}</ref>

Racing was firmly established at [[Chester Racecourse|Chester]], the oldest surviving racecourse in England, by 1540.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=8}} By the time of [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth]], the sport was a "common amusement",{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=3}} and the Queen herself is recorded as attending races on [[Salisbury Plain]] in the 1580s,{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=8}} as well as keeping up the paddocks at Hampton and founding her own at [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]].{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=3}} Racing in the [[Forest of Galtres]] dates to 1590,{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=8}} [[Leith Races]] were established by 1591, and at [[Doncaster Racecourse|Doncaster]] by 1595.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=8}}

===17th century===
During Elizabeth's reign, interest in horse racing appears to have waned, for reasons unrecorded,{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=29}} but this changed when in 1605, [[James VI and I|James I]] discovered the little village of [[Newmarket, Suffolk|Newmarket]] whilst out [[falconry|hawking]] or riding. He began to spend time there racing horses, and from then on it has been known as the home of horse racing in England. In fact, James spent so much time there that the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] petitioned him to concentrate more of his time on running the country.{{citation needed|date=April 2013}}  The region has had a long association with horses going back to the time of [[Boudica]] and the [[Iceni]].{{citation needed|date=April 2013}} The first recorded race there was a match for £100 between horses owned by [[William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury|Lord Salisbury]] and [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|Marquess of Buckingham]] in 1622, and the racecourse was founded in 1636.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=8}}

Chester continued to be a centre of the sport and by 1609 there are records of the St George's race being run five time round the "Roody" for a prize of silver bells and a sum of money.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=4}} The first known [[Rules of Racing]] date from [[Kiplingcotes]] in 1619.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=8}} Race meetings began to spring up elsewhere in the country.  Races were run for silver bells at Gatherley, near [[Richmond, North Yorkshire|Richmond]] in Yorkshire, [[Croydon]] and [[Theobalds]] on [[Enfield Chase]]. Jockey weights began to be measured and rigorously enforced,{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=31}} and formal training of horses took place, paying attention to food and exercise.{{sfn|Nimrod|1901|p=10}}

[[James VI and I]] encouraged the sport. Some of the Spanish horses that ended up in [[Galloway]] after the wrecking of the [[Spanish Armada]] were kept by local people and raced against the King's own horses when he was in Ireland. They proved better than the King's and were bought for the royal stables.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=4}} The King supported several meetings, even acting as [[Clerk of the Course]] at [[Lincoln Racecourse|Lincoln]] in 1607 and built a house at Newmarket as a hunting lodge and so he could enjoy the racing there.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=4}} Private match races between gentlemen, riding their own horses, rather than using hired jockeys as became the norm later, became commons.{{sfn|Nimrod|1901|p=10}}

Around the time that [[Charles I of England]] came to the [[throne]], Spring and Autumn race meetings were introduced to Newmarket and in 1634 the first Gold Cup event was held. Charles gave a 100 guinea silver cup to be raced for at [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], and instituted a silver plate at Newmarket. Meetings at [[Stamford, Lincolnshire|Stamford]] and [[Epsom Racecourse|Epsom]] were now well established.

All horse racing was then banned in 1654 by [[Oliver Cromwell]], and many horses were requisitioned by the state. Despite this Cromwell himself kept a stud running of his own.{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=36}} With the [[English Restoration|restoration]] of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] racing flourished and he instituted the [[Newmarket Town Plate]] in 1664, writing the rules himself:

{{Quote box|''Articles ordered by His Majestie to be observed by all persons that put in horses to ride for the Plate, the new round heat at Newmarket set out on the first day of October, 1664, in the 16th year of our Sovereign Lord King Charles II, which Plate is to be rid for yearly, the second Thursday in October for ever''|King Charles II, Rules of the Newmarket Town Plate|quoted =1}}

[[William III of England|William III]] founded a riding academy and gave plates to be ridden for in many parts of the country. Between 1695 and 1702, he ran his own horses at Newmarket, including in a 2000 guinea match against the [[Duke of Somerset]]. The influential [[Tregonwell Frampton]], known as the "Father of the Turf" was keeper of William's horses, and performed the same task for [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], [[George I of Great Britain|George I]] and possibly Charles II and James II. He did much to improve the breed.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=7}}

The three foundation sires of the modern thoroughbred, the [[Byerley Turk]], [[Darley Arabian]] and [[Godolphin Barb]] were imported to England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and founded the lines which can be traced down to every modern thoroughbred racehorse.<ref name="Waterman-p. 71"/> At this point, they weren't the only influential sires. Others, including the grey Barb donated by the King to a Mr Hutton, and known as Hutton's Grey Barb contributed importantly to the breed.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=4}}
[[File:Jockey-.jpg|left|thumb|Jockey, Edwardian painting by the famous Irish artist [[William Orpen]]]] The improvement of the breed was not purely for sporting purposes though. Warfare and conquest were also factors. As Whyte noted, "to the excellence of the British horse... may be ascribed much of our superiority over other nations, both in commerce and in war."{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=vii}}

===18th century===
In the early 18th century, [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] kept a large string of horses and was instrumental in the founding of [[Royal Ascot]] where the opening race each year is still called the [[Queen Anne Stakes]]. The first published account of race results was John Cheney's ''Historical list of all the Horse Matches run, and all plates and prizes run for in England and Wales'' which dates to 1727.{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=385}}  The [[Weatherbys|Weatherby family]] succeeded Cheney as the keepers of the most complete set of racing records,{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=386}} and in a later work which came into their possession, published in [[York]] in 1748, the result is recorded of a race run in September 1709 on Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, near York, for a gold cup of £50.{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=387}}

In 1740, [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] introduced an act "to restrain and to prevent the excessive increase in horse racing"; this was largely ignored and in the 1750 the [[Jockey Club]] was formed to create and apply the [[Rules of Racing]]. However, until the 1760s, individual horses seldom ran more than five or six times, due to the scarcity of prizes on offer, but this began to change with major race meetings expanding the prizes on offer. Newmarket and York led the way in this.{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=400}}

Races were still generally for mature horses, and were typically run in matches, or in best-of-three heats over long distances.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=6}}
Three-year-old races were first run in 1731 and two-year-olds raced for the first time at Newmarket in 1769.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=9}} In 1791, Cash became the first [[yearling (horse)|yearling]] to race, and beat a three-year-old in a match at Newmarket, in receipt of 3 stones.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=10}}

Newmarket itself continued to grow as a centre of racing and many of the racecourse's historic meetings (with persist to this day) were established in the 1760s and 1770s.{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=10}}

By the end of the century the [[12th Earl of Derby]] and [[Sir Charles Bunbury, 6th Baronet|Sir Charles Bunbury]] were key influencers in the sport. Under their auspices the [[Epsom Derby|Derby]] and [[Epsom Oaks|Oaks]] were established at [[Epsom Racecourse|Epsom]], inspired by the [[St Leger]] and the growing popularity of shorter races, for younger horses. These races, along with the Leger and the [[Guineas (horse races)|Guineas]] at Newmarket (which were established early in the 19th century) became known as the [[British Classic Races|Classics]].{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=6}}

At around the same time, jockeys began to earn a reputation in their own right, with early pioneers including [[Frank Buckle]], [[Sam Chifney Sr]] and [[Jem Robinson]].{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=6}}

===19th century===

Interest in the sport was at a high throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. As Whyte's History of the English Turf noted in 1840, "For nearly a century and a half, the "Turf" has formed a favourite amusement of "Kings, Lords and Commons".{{sfn|Whyte|1840|p=i}} Or as Rice's History reported in 1879, "for some two hundred years the pursuit of Horse-racing has been attractive to more of our countrymen than any other out-door pastime"<ref>
{{cite book |last=Rice |first=James |title=History of the British turf ''from the earliest times to the present day'', Volume I |year=1879 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington |location=[[London]] |page=ix|ol=23752704M }}</ref> Other traditional rural sports, including hawking, shooting and hare-hunting, had much diminished by this period, due to [[enclosure]] and "gradual refinement of manners"{{sfn|Nimrod|1901|p=5}} and racing was at its "acme".{{sfn|Nimrod|1901|p=7}}

[[Handicap (horse racing)|Handicap]] races, in which horses are assigned weights to carry in proportion to their ability, became popular from the turn of the 19th century onwards. The first had been run at [[Ascot Racecourse|Ascot]] in 1791{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=10}} and others followed. Many have persisted to this day including the Chester Cup (from 1824), Northumberland Plate (1833), [[Cesarewitch Handicap|Cesarewitch]] and [[Cambridgeshire Handicap]]s at Newmarket (both 1839), Goodwood's [[Stewards' Cup (Great Britain)|Stewards' Cup]] (1839), the [[Ebor Handicap|Ebor]] at York (1843), the [[City and Suburban Handicap]] at [[Epsom Racecourse|Epsom]] (1851) and the traditional opener for the flat racing season, the [[Lincoln Handicap|Lincoln]] (1853).{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=11}}

[[Steeplechase (horse racing)|Steeplechasing]] first became organised by Tom Colman at [[St Albans]] in the early 1830s. By the end of that decade, the [[Grand National]] had been established at [[Aintree Racecourse|Aintree]] by William Lynn.{{sfn|Barrett|1995|p=6}}

In 1875, [[Sandown Park]] became the first racecourse to open a separate members' enclosure.{{sfn|Plumptre|1985|p=11}}

By the turn of the 20th century, it was said that "time has only strengthened and confirmed the national passion for the sport."{{sfn|Cawthorne|Herod|1902|p=13}} Concerns over its moral effects were prevalent though. An interest in horse racing and the attendant gambling was described as the "offspring of a passion we should wish to disown", with a warning that "the modern turf is fast becoming the very manor of the worst".{{sfn|Nimrod|1901|p=6}}

===20th century to date===

In 1947 [[Hamilton Park Racecourse|Hamilton]] hosted the first evening race meeting in Great Britain. Now [[Wolverhampton Racecourse]] holds the most evening meetings, with nearly 50 a year.

The Jockey Club governed the sport until its governance role was handed to the [[British Horseracing Board]], (formed in June 1993) and while the BHB became responsible for strategic planning, finance, politics, race planning, training and marketing, the Jockey Club continued to regulate the sport. In 2006 it formed the Horseracing Regulatory Authority to carry out the regulatory process whilst it focused on owning 13 racecourses and the gallops in Newmarket and Lambourn. In July 2007 the HRA merged with the BHB to form the [[British Horseracing Authority]].