Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport in Great Britain, and one of the longest established, with a history dating back many centuries. According to a report by the British Horseracing Authority it generates £3.39 billion total direct and indirect expenditure in the British economy, of which £1.05 billion is from core racing industry expenditure, and the major horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival are important dates in the British and international sporting and society calendar.
The sport has taken place in the country since Roman times and many of the sport's traditions and rules originated there. The Jockey Club, established in 1750, codified the Rules of Racing and one of its members, Admiral Rous laid the foundations of the handicapping system for horse racing, including the weight-for-age scale. Britain is also home to racecourses including Newmarket, Ascot and Cheltenham and races including The Derby at Epsom, The Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup. Great Britain has also produced some of the greatest jockeys, including Fred Archer, Sir Gordon Richards and Lester Piggott.
Britain has also historically been a hugely important centre for thoroughbred racehorse breeding. In fact all racehorses are called English Thoroughbred, the breed having been created in England. All modern thoroughbred racehorses can trace a line back to three foundation sires which were imported to Britain in the late 17th/early 18th centuries and the General Stud Book first published by James Weatherby still records details of every horse in the breed.
Gambling on horseraces has been one of the cornerstones of the British betting industry and the relationship between the two has historically been one of mutual dependence. The betting industry is an important funder of horse racing in Great Britain, through the betting levy administered by the Horserace Betting Levy Board and through media rights negotiated by racecourses and betting shops.
Types of racing There are two main forms of horse racing in Great Britain. Flat racing, which is run over distances between 5 furlongs and 2 miles 5 furlongs 159 yards on courses without obstacles National Hunt racing, races run over distances between 2 miles and miles, where horses usually jump either hurdles or fences (races known as steeplechases). There is also a category of National Hunt races known as National Hunt flat races, which are run under National Hunt rules, but where no obstacles are jumped.
Collectively, the above racing is often referred to as racing "under rules", since there is another form of racing which is run on an altogether more informal and ad hoc basis, known as point-to-point racing. Point-to-point is a form of steeplechasing for amateur riders.
All the above forms of the sport are run under the auspices of the governing and regulatory body for horse racing in Great Britain, the British Horseracing Authority. with the exception of point-to-pointing which is administered by the Point-to-Point Authority with the BHA taking on regulatory functions. There is also a limited amount of harness racing which takes place under the auspices of the British Harness Racing Society and Arabian racing which takes place under the auspices of the Arabian Racing Organisation.
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, although whether the Romans actually introduced the sport is a matter of conjecture. It is believed that Romans at the encampment at Wetherby matched horses against Arabian horses brought to England by Emperor Septimius Severus. Traces of racecourses dating to the Roman occupation exist, but records are scarce.
The Venerable Bede reports that the English began to saddle their horses about the year 631.
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. 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.
The first recorded race meetings were during the reign of Henry II at Smithfield, London, during the annual St Bartholomew's horse fair. The event is attested by William Fitzstephen writing at some time after 1174 and the poet Drayton.
During the Crusades, horse-breeding improved and horseback contests were popular, but in the form of tournaments, rather than races. King John established a stud at Eltham, Kent and the Middle English romance Sir Bevis of Hampton has couplets which refer to races taking place in the time of Richard I.
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.
16th Century Records become more substantial during the time of Henry VIII. He passed a number of laws relating to the breeding of horses and also imported a large number of stallions and mares for breeding from Spain, Italy and the East. He kept a training establishment at Greenwich and the stud at Eltham. 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.
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 and was a small wooden ball decorated with flowers. Meanwhile, the oldest horse race still in existence, the Kiplingcotes Derby was first run in 1519. The Carlisle Bells, 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").
Racing was firmly established at Chester, the oldest surviving racecourse in England, by 1540. By the time of Elizabeth, the sport was a "common amusement", and the Queen herself is recorded as attending races on Salisbury Plain in the 1580s, as well as keeping up the paddocks at Hampton and founding her own at Blackheath. Racing in the Forest of Galtres dates to 1590, Leith Races were established by 1591, and at Doncaster by 1595.
17th century During Elizabeth's reign, interest in horse racing appears to have waned, for reasons unrecorded, but this changed when in 1605, James I discovered the little village of Newmarket whilst out 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 built a palace and spent so much time there that the House of Commons petitioned him to concentrate more of his time on running the country. The region has had a long association with horses going back to the time of Boudica and the Iceni. The first recorded race there was a match for £100 between horses owned by Lord Salisbury and Marquess of Buckingham in 1622, and the racecourse was founded in 1636.
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. The first known Rules of Racing date from Kiplingcotes in 1619. Race meetings began to spring up elsewhere in the country. Races were run for silver bells at Gatherley, near Richmond in Yorkshire, Croydon and Theobalds on Enfield Chase. Jockey weights began to be measured and rigorously enforced, and formal training of horses took place, paying attention to food and exercise.
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. The King supported several meetings, even acting as Clerk of the Course at Lincoln in 1607 and built a house at Newmarket as a hunting lodge and so he could enjoy the racing there. Private match races between gentlemen, riding their own horses, rather than using hired jockeys as became the norm later, became commons.
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, and instituted a silver plate at Newmarket. Meetings at Stamford and 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. With the restoration of Charles II racing flourished and he instituted the Newmarket Town Plate in 1664, writing the rules himself:
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 Queen Anne, George I and possibly Charles II and James II. He did much to improve the breed.
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. 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. 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."
18th century In the early 18th century, 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. The Weatherby family succeeded Cheney as the keepers of the most complete set of racing records, 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.
In 1740, 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.
Races were still generally for mature horses, and were typically run in matches, or in best-of-three heats over long distances.