Dear Readers: Happy 2014! Here's to a new year of learning more about thoroughbred racing history. The Times has compiled a short list of highlights to look forward to in the coming months: Happy Birthday Wishes: This week marks the birthdays of not one, but TWO leaders of the …
Rules of the Adams County Jockey Club Unearthed!
Dear Readers: The Times is pleased the share from the Constitution of the Adams County, Mississippi, Jockey Club (1845) the following selections on rules governing the antebellum turf. Our racing correspondent discovered this preserved document among the possessions of …
[Read more...] about Rules of the Adams County Jockey Club Unearthed!
Captain Oliver’s Triumph: Opening Day at the Eclipse Course, March 17, 1837 [Part I. – 1837 Races]
“Many persons determined to see the race, were compelled to walk, as they did, under a burning sun, four miles and a half.” -- Spirit of the Times, 8 April 1837 At the same time that he was Postmaster of Big Lick in 1831, twenty-one-year-old Yelverton N. Oliver was …
A Toast to Bumper, the Best Winded, the Fleetest Horse of All [Part II. – 1837 Races]
“The public may probably never have it in their power again to witness such sport!” Captain Yelverton N. Oliver It was a landmark day for racing in the United States, for this was a Sunday–and the first occasion for a Jockey Club anywhere to hold a contest on the …
Ode to a Swift Nag: Day Four, New Orleans Jockey Club 1837 Spring Races [Part III. – 1837 Races]
Thy name, swift nag, shall be enroll’d On every sporting ground. – New Orleans Picayune, 21 March 1837 Monday, Day Four of the New Orleans Jockey Club’s inaugural spring races over Captain Oliver’s new Eclipse Course might as well have been promoted as Ladies' Day at …