Earliest meeting: Thursday 5th October 1826
Final meeting: Friday 20th October 1865
The large Welsh town of Newtown is in Powys, but formerly in Montgomeryshire, and lies on the River Severn. The town held a number of race meetings beginning on Thursday 5th October 1826. The meetings should not be confused with minor meetings in a hamlet also called Newtown between Hereford and Worcester which were staged over a number of years, predominantly for donkey races, with the meeting billed as the Donkeyshire St Leger meeting. A second meeting at Newtown (Powys) took place on Friday 15th June 1827 on the racecourse located north-east of the town, spread over 4 fields, when the opening Sweepstake was won by Wintandorf owned by Mr Clifton which beat Orthodox owned by the racing fanatic Sir W W Wynn. Although meetings were not regular, another meeting was staged in the town on Friday 20th October 1865 to celebrate the achievements of the Scots Greys of which Sir Watkin Wynn was a Lieutenant-Colonel. A party of 300 Scots Greys attended the meeting from London and enjoyed seeing the Newton Plate won by Dingle Lass from Jenny owned by Mr Morgan. The concluding Cavalry Stakes was won by Mr C Davies’ Court Calmore.
Friday 15th June 1827
Newtown Members’ Plate over 2 miles
1. Mr Munn, 5 year old owned by Mr Clifton
2. Cock Robin, 5 year old owned by Mr Sykes
3. Hesperus, aged horse owned by Major Gore
4. Glead, bay filly owned by Lord Grosvenor
I am grateful to Ordnance Survey (© Crown Copyright) for permission to use the map shown below.
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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
