Earliest meeting: Wednesday 3rd October 1722
Final meeting: Thursday 7th August 1862
The earliest record of racing in the Lincolnshire town of Boston was from the Stamford Mercury edition of Thursday 30th August 1722 which is shown below. It advertised an extended three day meeting from Wednesday 3rd to Friday 5th October 1722. Eight years later Baily’s Racing Register provided detailed results from the two day meeting held on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th August 1730 in which the £20 Selling Plate went to Mr Heneage’s Whitenose, while the more valuable £30 Plate was won by Mr Ward’s Carlisle Gelding beating Matrimony. The meeting in June 1735 had to be postponed because of lack of entries, and there was then a lapse in racing for over a century until meetings were revived in 1847. They continued on Thursday 28th September 1848 when the Willoughby Stakes was won by Mr Cassell’s Bohemienne beating Miss Florence, while the Boston Silver Cup went to Mr Elsdale’s Madame Vestris. The course was a perfectly flat oblong of barely 6 furlongs in perimeter, with a run in of about 1 ½ furlongs, on the Tattershall Road owned by Mr T P Minton the landlord of the Red Lion Inn. Although meetings were not continuous during this spell, they did last for a period of 15 years before coming to an end on Thursday 7th August 1862. That final meeting began well enough with the Boston Stakes going to Mr Priestman’s Bandit, but was later shrouded in controversy when the conditions for the Hurdle race stated that at least 3 must run for the public money to be added to the Purse. In the event only Flotilla was at the post in time, although both Mr Swain’s hack Miss Taft and Mr Priestman’s hack Bandit started the race, galloped a few yards and left the course leaving the odds-on Flotilla to complete alone. A minor meeting was staged on Skirbeck Quarter on Thursday 13th April 1865, but races were of no significance and the card contained pony races.
The newspaper extract below is shown courtesy of the Stamford Mercury and British Library Online.
Thursday 18th to Friday 19th August 1730
Boston £20 Selling Plate
1. Whitenose owned by Mr Heneage
2. His-wife’s-fancy owned by Mr Boothby
3. Pert owned by The Duke of Ancaster
Boston £30 Selling Plate
1. Carlisle Gelding owned by Mr Ward
2. Matrimony owned by Mr Noel
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
