Earliest meeting: Wednesday 1st September 1852
Final meeting: Wednesday 18th December 1867
The Wiltshire market town of Westbury, famous for the Westbury White Horse, is situated close to the county border with Somerset on the edge of beautiful Salisbury Plain. In 1843 a meeting was held in conjunction with the village of Bratton on Friday 28th July 1843 when Viginti won the Bratton Castle Stakes. The town was the setting for the first Beaufort Hunt race meeting in 1867. The Beaufort Hunt is known to have been in existence since at least 1786 when the then 5th Duke of Beaufort had a pack of hounds. However, it took almost another hundred years before the Hunt Committee organised its own steeplechase meeting. That inaugural 2 day meeting of the Beaufort Hunt took place on Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th December 1867, afterwards becoming a roving meeting for the next 11 years. The steeplechase course was situated within a quarter of a mile of Westbury Railway Station, on the Great Western Line, and was organised by Wiltshire County and the Beaufort Hunt. After this date the meeting was staged at various times at Dauntsey, Little Sodbury and Charlton Park before resting on Sherston and Alderton. The town had already organised race meetings in the past, the first of which took place on Wednesday 1st September 1852. The final meeting of the Beaufort Hunt took place on Saturday 14th April 1956 when a certain John Lawrence, later to become Lord Oaksey, rode at the meeting claiming 7 lbs.
Duke of Beaufort, Duke of Hamilton, Marquis of Lansdowne
Wiltshire County Handicap (3 ½ miles), Longleat Stakes (2 ½ miles), Bowood Plate (1 ½ miles), Savernake Forest Handicap (2 miles)
The extract below is taken from The Sportsman Saturday 14th December 1867 and is shown courtesy of the British Newspaper Archives Online:-
Tuesday 17th December 1867
Longleat Stakes entries over 2 ½ miles
St Magnus, Penelope, Tinderbox, Tramore Lass
Turpentine, Barbarian, Blarney, Swindler
Useless, Sunbeam, Bessie, Jacob, Merry Horn
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
