Earliest Meeting: Thursday 2nd October 1718
Final Meeting: Thursday 11th October 1722
The small Leicestershire village of Somerby is located just under 10 kilometres south of Melton Mowbray. It enjoys attractive, open countryside in what today is known as ‘High Leicestershire’, but back in the early part of the 18th century that same countryside was the scene of a 2 day race meeting. Nearby Melton, famous for its hunting, was equally famous for its horse racing, so it is no surprise that Somerby hosted a race meeting which began on Thursday 2nd and concluded on Friday 3rd October 1718. The Stamford Mercury advertised the meeting widely, with an extract from the newspaper shown below, but it did not later publish the results from the event. The meeting was the brainchild of 4 local publicans who, no doubt, benefitted from the large crowds assembled for the races. A further 2 day meeting followed on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th October 1720, as indicated in the extract shown below, while a single day meeting was held on Thursday 11th October 1722 when the principal event was the Somerby £4 Plate.Whilst there may well have been meetings both before and after the stated events, there is no evidence of this in the newspapers of the day.
The newspaper extract below is shown courtesy of the Stamford Mercury and British Library Online.
The second extract is also shown courtesy of the Stamford Mercury and British Library Online.
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
