Earliest meeting: April 1856
Final meeting: April 1859
The Scottish village of Dalton is a small settlement 10 miles south east of Dumfries and 4 miles south of Lockerbie. Although the Dumfries Racecourse held its final meeting on Wednesday 13th October 1847, within a year hunters and hounds were introduced into the area by Joe Graham.  It was 5 years later that the first race meeting organised by the Hunt Committee took place at Leafield on 8th April 1853. However, the next venue was Dalton which staged racing from 1856 until 1859. The inaugural meeting was held in April 1856 and had as its feature race the Dumfriesshire Hunt Cup. Meetings continued for 3 more years at this venue until a final card in April 1859. At the meeting on Friday 26th March 1858 the feature race, the Dumfries Hunt Cup, was won by Mr Smith’s Trusty beating Margaret Graham and Never Too Late To Mend, both owned by Mr Stewart. Racing organised by the Hunt Committee continued at a number of venues until its final meeting at Justinlees in 1914.

Marquis of Queensberry, Joe Graham, Captain David Johnstone

Dumfriesshire Hunt Steeplechase, The Silver Snuff-Box, The Silver Jug, Dumfriesshire Hunt Cup, Border Hunt Chase

Friday 26th March 1858
Dumfries Hunt Cup
1. Trusty, brown gelding owned by Mr Smith
2. Margaret Graham, grey mare owned by Mr Stewart
3. Never Too Late To Mend, chestnut gelding owned by Mr Stewart
4. Bonnie Dundee, bay gelding owned by Lord Queensberry

Whilst there was a single meeting held on Tuesday 1st April 1924, the area still to this day holds successful point to point meetings at Lockerbie.

In fields on the edge of Dalton.

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

ISBN 978-0-9957632-0-3

652 pages

774 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-1-0

352 pages

400 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-2-7

180 pages

140 former courses

ISBN 978-0-9957632-3-4

264 pages

235 former courses