In December 1875 the ex-King and Queen of Naples came to England for fox-hunting and took up residence in “Park View” where she would be in the heart of the Grafton Hunt district. Park View was on the south side of Towcester, Northamptonshire near the Folly public house on the Watling Street. The lodge house and the stables are still in existence. Her majesty became passionately fond of hunting and said how much her sister would also enjoy it and in the spring she announced that the Empress of Austria, her sister, intended to visit England.

In March 1876, Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress of Austria, paid a visit to England and rented Easton Neston House near Towcester, with its fine stabling for her horses. The Empress used the pseudonym Countess Hohenembs to avoid publicity. When she arrived in England and passed through London Queen Victoria would not see her and so she continued by train to Towcester.

The event at Hopping Hill so delighted the Empress she decided to establish a race meeting of her own to be called the Grafton Hunt Steeplechase. A course was laid out in Easton Neston Park and a stand erected for guests. She then sent to Hancock’s, a London jeweller, to make a cup for the winner, and to be called The Hohenembs Cup. To enter the race the horses were to be from the Grafton, Pytchley, Bicester and Mr Selby-Lowndes hunts. The weight to be 13st and the length 3 miles. Bay Middleton entered on a horse called Musketeer. A special marquee was also erected so that all the people who had helped her during her stay could be entertained and the food was ordered from a London caterer. Bay Middleton won the race by 3 lengths which was probably a great joy for the Empress.

She was introduced to Mr J M K Elliott by her sister and the Empress said that she had received regular letters about the delights of the hunting and how she should also come over to the Grafton Hunt. She brought a stud of ten horses with her from Vienna and asked Mr Elliott for his opinion. He only found four suitable for hunting and so buyers were sent off to Lincolnshire to procure more for her.

One day they were invited for lunch to see their friends Lord and Lady Spencer at Althorp House near Long Buckby. He had met them both in 1874 when they had visited Belvoir Castle. In a letter Lady Spencer wrote to her mother, Lady Augusta Seymour, she tells how the Empress was expected for lunch at 1pm and how at 12 noon when we were quite unprepared to receive her, Spencer had gone to dress in his hunting and I was deciding what to wear when her carriage arrived”.

After the Empress and her party had returned to Austria a meeting was called in Towcester at the Pomfret Arms to discuss the possibility of having a regular steeplechase meeting at Easton Neston Park.

After lunch they mounted their horses and galloped off to Brington Hill, found a fox and ran it to ground. The Empress was delighted for Captain ‘Bay’ Middleton had been her pilot.

The committee that was formed decided to hold an annual race SirThomas Fermor-Hesketh gave a 51 year lease to hold the Easter Monday races in his park. This was to run from 1877 to 1928. Each year a temporary stand was erected inside the park wall about half way up the London road and is probably why the four sets of double wooden gates are set into the wall in this area. When the lease had expired Sir Thomas set up a company called The Towcester Racecourse Ltd and built a permanent standstand and a weighing room. This stand was positioned near the present Grace Stand.

When the Empress stayed in the Isle of Wight in 1874 a steeple-chase meeting was held in her honour with three races for hunt members, farmers and others. Whilst staying at Easton Neston she went by train from Blisworth station to Lamport where a similar race meeting was held by the Pytchley Hunt at Hopping Hill. Earl Spencer had a special pavilion erected and provided a magnificent lunch for his guests. ‘Bay’ Middleton raced in his colours of black, pink hoops and a black cap and was invited to the lunch.

Neither the Empress of Austria nor her sister Marie Sophia, the ex-Queen of Naples, were to return to the Grafton Hunt but their memory has lasted. In 2005 a new grandstand was built at Towcester racecourse and aptly named ‘The Empress Stand’.