Earliest meeting: May 1738
Final meeting: Thursday 19th August 1869
The ‘County History of Cambridgeshire’ recorded that races were first run at Wisbech in 1738, when a two day meeting took place at the end of May at which two Plates were offered of 10 and 20 Guineas. This was not a particularly successful meeting, given that one was a walk-over and the second had only three runners. By 1754 races were changed to two £50 Plates in heats, one being for Hunters. A third was added in 1774, but they attracted few competitors, except when noblemen condescended to send horses over from Newmarket to win them. One of the earliest recorded meetings in the Racing Calendar, at the Cambridgeshire town, took place on Tuesday 20th May 1755 on a course situated on the road to Elm. There was a particularly active period between 1779, when the Duke of Rutland’s Wisbeach won the Purse, and 1781 when 2 and 3 day meetings were held, the last one being from 30th May to 1st June 1781. The final race was won by Sir L Dundas’s Prince Ferdinand, but the meetings finished in controversy because the course was so tight that several horses were killed, including Lord Clermont’s favourite, causing races to lapse for almost a century. Races were revived with a meeting, overseen by Mr C Jones Clerk of the Course, on Wednesday 27th June 1866 on a course, complete with grandstand, on the Peterborough Road. The feature Wisbech Cup was won by St Albans owned by Mr Hanton. Races continued for just 3 more years until the final event on Thursday 19th August 1869.
Duke of Rutland, Lord Clermont, Lord Grosvenor, Sir T Dundas, Lord Bertie, Lord March, Sir Horatio Pettus
Tuesday 20th May 1755 Wisbech Hunters Fifty Pounds Purse
1. Badsticks owned by Mr Maskill
2. Whitefoot owned by Mr Hawkesley
3. White Stockings owned by Mr Boreman
Thursday 22nd May 1755 Wisbech Fifty Pounds Purse
1. Ruby owned by Mr Keck
2. Wagg owned by Lord William Manners
3. Squirrel owned by Sir Horatio Pettus
26th and 27th May 1762
Wisbech Give and Take over 2 miles
1. Collin owned by Mr Quick
2. Trinissime owned by Mr Matthew
3. Music owned by Lord Bertie
Wisbech 2 mile Purse
1. Charlotte owned by Mr Quick
2. Snip owned by Mr Adams
3. Top owned by Lord March.
Tuesday 4th to Thursday 6th June 1782
Wisbech Maiden Stakes over 2 miles
1. Prince Herod owned by Mr Clarke
2. Unnamed colt by Pantalon owned by Mr Watson
3. Holly owned by Lord Clermont
Wisbech 20 Guineas Sweepstake over a mile
1. Conductor owned by Mr Mann
2. Evergreen owned by Mr Creasy
3. Unnamed colt by Sweetwilliam owned by Lord Grosvenor
Though the meeting was later moved to July, and then back to June, it expired in 1783.
Wednesday 27th June 1866
Wisbech Cup over 1 mile
1. St Albans, chestnut filly owned by Mr Hanton
2. Peacock, bay gelding owned by Mr B Taylor
3. Sailor Boy, chestnut horse owned by Mr Bailey
I am grateful to Clare Buxton for providing details about Wisbech Races, shown below, from her excellent dissertation, '18th and early 19th Century Race Grounds in Norfolk and Suffolk' completed in September 2005.
The race meetings at Wisbech are amongst the earliest mentioned in the Racing Calendar for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The exceptionally fine run of Georgian buildings at the North Brink, overlooking the River Nene, testifies to Wisbech being a town of some gentility and prosperity in the early eighteenth century. Races took place on a low-lying tract of ground clearly crossed by the Downham Market to Wisbech Turnpike (1765) between the parishes of Elm and Emneth. Dashingly described in 1778 as being 'two musket shots from the town' by a cultivated Italian visitor, Guiseppe Baretti, the raceground and its accompanying grandstand is still clearly marked on Faden's map, although by that date racing had been discontinued. It seems likely that this area was Emneth Common. According to Baretti's observation, the course was one mile – perhaps a circuit of the common – and there were two grandstands, one for the gentlemen and the other for the ladies, at either side of the start, with a combined capacity for six hundred spectators. The presence of permanent grandstands would indicate both a relatively sophisticated and affluent race crowd and also that the race meeting had been an established event for some years. In terms of top-notch sport and corresponding quality of bloodstock, Barretti was told that Wisbech Races were regarded as 'some of the least considerabl' implying that their main attraction to the assembled company were the social opportunities presented. At the course, a wager on the outcome of a race added to the fun 'the gentlemen placing sums of money whilst the ladies put up a pot of coffee, so many pounds of tea, chocolate or some other little thing'; but the real entertainment began after racing: 'The evening began with minuets and proceeded with much animation in country dances. After which, supper was served in another room at long tables with gentlemen and ladies on opposite sides. The expense of the meal was divided between the gentlemen and then paid by them. Dancing continued until dawn.'
According to the Racing Calendar, Wisbech held six race meetings between 1755 and 1767 but races there are not mentioned beyond that date. Their heyday was probably during the 1760s as it is then aristocratic owners, such as Lord Albemarle Bertie, are listed as running his horses. Prize money had to be worthwhile for horses to be walked to such a course; and prize money depended upon local subscription and patronage. At their height, Wisbech Races were most likely part of the circuit for the 'country plate horses'. Although not featuring in the Racing Calendar after 1767, racing continued at Wisbech and what records are available illustrate the hazards of the sport for man and horse. Despite showing a healthy balance-sheet of £121 6s 6d, 63 the last races were held in 1780. The reasons for the cessation of these races are directly related to the land usage and subsequent prosperity of the area. Late eighteenth century works –aimed primarily at creating greater efficiency in land drainage and encouraging more agricultural production – also included the construction of the Wisbech and Outwell canal (1794). A map produced showing the proposed route of the canal and the land-owners it would affect, clearly refers to Wisbech Race Ground. However, the canal did not cut directly across the race ground and would, in fact, have been less of an impediment to racing than the existing turnpike road. More important to the fate of the races was the prosperity of Wisbech town itself. Throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century, silt levels in the River Nene rose and vessels of deeper draught were unable to navigate as far inland as the erstwhile port of Wisbech. Not until the huge schemes of land reclamation and river work took place in the late 1820s did the fortunes of Wisbech revive. Commercial issues apart, the effects of earlier Fen drainage schemes may also have taken their toll upon the polite society of Wisbech. 'Due to the draining of the Fens spoiling the game shooting, most local gentry left the neighbourhood and their manor houses such as White Hall on the North Brink; and Needham Hall and the former Vaux Manor House in Elm, were converted into farmhouses.' Lack of society and a general dip in the prosperity of Wisbech and its hinterland played a leading role in the demise of the races. Although much enjoyed by the town society, Wisbech Races showed a distinct lack of aristocratic patronage. It is notable in the Racing Calendars of the 1750s that there were far more subscribers from Suffolk than Norfolk and certainly more gentry in the Suffolk lists – a pattern followed throughout the next 50 years or so. The Bentinck family owned considerable lands across the Fens and were great supporters of the English thoroughbred but there is no evidence of their horses racing at Wisbech. Indeed, of the land-owners given in the Book of Reference to the Wisbech & Outwell Canal, only the surname Vavasour has a link to horse-racing. Sir Philip Vavasour built a fine mansion on the South Brink in Wisbech in 1720. Sixty-five years later, Sir Walter Vavasour owned a high-class racehorse called Baronet, sired by Eclipse and subsequently owned by the Prince of Wales.
Wisbech races were briefly revived in 1868, with a £20 Handicap and a £15 Trial Stakes, and were held again in 1869, they could not be kept up and finished in 1869.
Initially on Elm Road and then Peterborough Road.
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
