Earliest meeting: Wednesday 19th September 1838
Final meeting: Friday 6th October 1854
The Cornish town of Falmouth is a port on the River Fal and once held its own series of races in the 19th century. The earliest record of a meeting was on Wednesday 19th September 1838 when racing took place 2 miles from town at Kegilliack. The course extended over 4 fields with fences levelled in appropriate places to make them a fair test. The feature race at this early meeting was the Falmouth Silver Goblet. Racing continued the next year at Falmouth and Penryn on 4th September 1839, with a later October meeting. Racing was held at a number of venues in the vicinity of the town and in 1849 the meeting had moved to Trewen, Budock and was staged on Friday 21st September 1849. The main viewing area was a patch of high ground which provided a good view, not only of the races, but of Falmouth Harbour below. The key race, the Falmouth Steeplechase over 3 miles was won by Jenny Jones who finished some two lengths ahead of Mr Gregor's grey horse, with Unexpected some distance back in third. However, the race was not without incident, with a number of horses falling and jockeys being injured, including one jockey suffering a broken leg. Remarkably, Jenny Jones took part in the next race, just 15 minutes later, and was placed second. The final meeting under rules took place on Friday 6th October 1854, although meetings were resurrected on Wednesday 3rd October 1888, but were no longer under rules. |
Thursday 10th October 1839
Falmouth 20 Sovereigns Plate
1. The Moor, aged horse owned by Mr J Hex
2. Sledemere, aged horse owned by Captain Williams
3. Harry, bay colt owned by Mr W Horsley |
Much of the information about this course has been found using internet research and is in the public domain. However, useful research sources have been:-
London Illustrated News
Racing Illustrated 1895-1899
The Sporting & Dramatic Illustrated
Northern Turf History Volumes 1-4 by J.Fairfax-Blakeborough
The Sporting Magazine
A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt first published in 1996 ISBN 0 900599 89 8
Racing Calendars which were first published in 1727 |
