Earliest meeting: Tuesday 24th March 1857
Final meeting: Tuesday 3rd April 1877
The West Midlands town of Sutton Coldfield lies just 8 miles north east of Birmingham and has Royal status and a long history, for at nearby Langley Brook there is evidence of a Bronze Age settlement. In the mid-1800s the town held its own series of race meetings, with the early steeplechase meetings taking place in 1852 at its Lichfield road course. However, it was only once it had moved to its new course next to Moor Hall Park in 1857 that it became accepted as Birmingham’s premier steeplechase course. The circular course, consisting of 8 fences, first staged a meeting on Tuesday 24th March 1857 when the feature race, the Birmingham Grand Annual Steeplechase, was won by the Edwin Weever ridden Sting. It was deemed to be a very successful start and future meetings took place at the course for the next 16 years. The two day meeting on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th February 1863 was very special because the crowd was boosted to almost 30000 as a result of the opening of the Birmingham to Sutton railway line. The principal race, the Birmingham Grand Annual Chase, was won by Emblem, ridden by George Stevens, and just a month later he justified his dominance of big races when capturing the Grand National at Aintree. The two day meeting on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th March 1873 was to be the last at the Moor Hall course, with the main race falling to Dodona, after which the developers moved in and the races moved on. The final meeting took place on Tuesday 3rd April 1877 on a steeplechase course at the rear of the Halfway House Inn. |
Thursday 16th February 1871
Birmingham Grand Annual Steeplechase over 3 ¾ miles
1. Moose, aged horse owned by Mr E Brayley
2. Brick, aged horse owned by Mr T V Morgan
3. Fan, aged horse owned by Mr D Lawrence |
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 |
