Earliest meeting: Tuesday 27th March 1894
Final meeting: Wednesday 8th April 1914
Alleston Farm is on the outskirts of Pembroke and first hosted Pembroke Hunt races in the latter part of the 19th century. Pembroke, the historic county town of Pembrokeshire, had been holding races since the mid 1800s, with the first recorded meeting taking place on the Orielton Estate, home of the Baronetcy of Orielton, in April 1856. The meeting lasted for 3 further years at this venue until it transferred to Freshwater East in 1860. This seaside town was a lovely setting for races on the beach, although it is thought that the meeting only remained until 1862. Further records show that a meeting took place at Pembroke Dock on 22nd October 1863, and later the meeting visited St Daniel’s Banking course, close to the town of Pembroke until 1869. However, Alleston was to become the permanent home of the Pembroke Hunt meeting, staging hurdle races for the final 15 years. At the meeting on Tuesday 27th March 1894 the crowd were entertained throughout the day by the Band of the Welsh Regiment. The card opened with the Garrison Plate over 3 miles of the banks course, and was won by Silver Blaze owned by Mr W J Smith, while the County Plate was run over 3 miles on the Flying course and went to Mr R H Harries Marguerita. The principal race, the Open Steeplechase, drew a good field and saw the odds on Hornpipe get the better of Brown Holland. The all grass, oval course was situated a mile from Pembroke and Lamphey stations and offered Hurdle races from 1899 when, up to this point, only steeplechases had been offered. Meetings continued to be held annually, although by 1910 the writing was on the wall that the track was not sustainable. In that year a five race programme attracted only 14 runners, including a walk over and two races which became matches. Things got so bad that there were no meetings in 1912 or 1913, although a final card was staged on Wednesday 8th April 1914. |
| Principal Races |
Lawrenny Plate, Lydstep Steeplechase, Garrison Hurdle, Beauchamp Cup, Pembroke Castle Hurdle, Pembroke Stewards’ Plate, Garrison Plate |
Tuesday 27th March 1894
The Open Steeplechase over 3 miles on the banks course
1. Hornpipe, aged horse owned by Mr R H Harries
2. Brown Holland, aged horse owned by Mr J T Fisher
3. Merlin, aged horse owned by Captain Goldschmidt
Betting: 4/5 Hornpipe, 3/1 Brown Holland, 4/1 Merlin |
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 |
