A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



and there were six events each day. The prin- 

 cipal race on the first day was the Borough 

 Member's Plate of 50, and on the second day 

 Her Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas ; the latter 

 was won by Blue Jack, four horses competing. 

 It is worth noting that the biggest stake run for 

 at Great Yarmouth the same year was a sweep- 

 stake of 5 each with 50 added. On the race 

 nights, the performances at the Theatre Royal, 

 Tackett Street, were under the patronage of 

 Sir Fitzroy Kelly and the stewards of the 

 races. 



During the seventies the programme became 

 more mixed : hurdle races, races for hunters, and 

 steeplechases were added, and the meeting lost 

 much of its ' legitimate ' character. Neverthe- 

 less it was carried on with varying success, until 

 the Jockey Club in 1877 made the rule that 

 300 a day should be given, of which at least 

 ^,150 should be allotted to races of a mile or 

 more, the minimum value of any race to be 

 raised to 100. This was of course fatal to 

 many flat-race meetings to which the public had 

 free access, and that of Ipswich became a thing 

 of the past. Stceplechasing had been started in 

 1875 in conjunction with flat racing, but races 

 under Jockey Club rules the Suffolk Handicap 

 and the Royal Plate of 2OO guineas were last 

 included in the programme of the 1883 meeting, 

 since when there has been none but steeple- 

 chasing at Ipswich. 



In 1902, the old race-course being required 

 for building purposes, a new one was sought and 

 found by Colonel Alderson, chairman of the 

 Ipswich Race Committee, who secured from the 

 local landowners a most desirable new course 

 contiguous to the old one, at a nominal rent. 

 The course is egg-shaped and level, with a 

 ' straight ' of over a quarter of a mile. The 

 going is always excellent, as neither wet nor dry 

 weather affects the ground. A new grand stand 

 has been erected, and a two-day meeting under 

 National Hunt Rules takes place annually in 

 April. Six events figure on each day's pro- 

 gramme, and comprise the Rendlesham Park 

 Selling Hurdle Race of 40 sovs., the Essex and 

 Suffolk Hunt Plate of 40 sovs., the Eastern 

 Counties Race of too sovs., the Brooke Plate of 

 40 sovs., an open selling race, and a maiden 

 hurdle race. The secretary of the Race Com- 

 mittee and starter is Mr. J. T. Miller. 



Beccles is one of the numerous meetings 

 which have disappeared. In the early years of 

 the nineteenth century there was a two-day 

 meeting annually, which seems, however, to 

 kave been but poorly supported ; in 1 804, for 

 example, only three horses ran for the two 50 

 stakes which formed the programme. Nor had 

 matters greatly improved twelve years later when 

 ' Lord Suffield's horse Burlow won all the chief 

 races, namely, a three-guinea sweepstake with 

 25 guineas added, a 50 selling plate, and the 

 Town Plate of the same value. A cricket 



match between eleven gentlemen of Beccles 

 against eleven of Yarmouth was a supple- 

 mentary attraction to the races in 1840 and 

 frequently in subsequent years. These meet- 

 ings were well attended, there being, in additioti 

 to the races under Jockey Club Rules, pony, 

 galloway, and donkey races. There were 

 also competitions by teams of cart horses for a 

 silver watch, value 5. The last meeting held 

 under the Rules of Racing at Beccles was held in 

 September, 1857. There were three races on 

 each of the two days, but the sport seems to have 

 been of very moderate order, twelve horses 

 starting for the six events, two of which it may 

 be observed were run, after the old fashion, in 

 heats. 



Very little is known concerning the old 

 Bungay meeting. It is not mentioned in the 

 Calendar, and the explanation doubtless is that 

 the races which were held on the common for 

 two or three centuries were for ponies, gallo- 

 ways, and horses other than thoroughbreds. 

 The Bungay meeting under National Hunt Rules 

 was revived by Captain Boycott about 1883, 

 with Mr. Luke McDonnell as hon. secretary, 

 and at the present time has Mr. A. S. Manning 

 as clerk of the course and Mr. Gordon Barratt 

 as hon. secretary. It is a two-day meeting held 

 during April, and the programme comprises six 

 events. The course, nearly two miles in circum- 

 ference, on the celebrated Bungay Common, is 

 all grass and always affords good going. The 

 chief events are the Rendlesham Steeplechase 

 and the Coronation Hurdle Race, each worth 

 70. In 1904 the executive gave a steeple- 

 chase of 250 and a hurdle race of 100. An 

 attempt to organize an autumn meeting in 1904 

 failed. The Bungay meeting is acknowledged 

 to be the best of those held under National Hunt 

 Rules in East Anglia. 



During Whitsun week, in former days, Thet- 

 ford and Swaffham had their annual races, which 

 were liberally supported by the Dukes of Grafton. 

 A clause in the conditions under which the then 

 duke gave a fifty-guinea plate at the Thetford 

 meeting in 1779 is worth reproducing : 



The horses to be shown and entered for the Plate 

 at the gate of St. Mary's Church before the Clerk of 

 the Course on Sat. June z6th, between the hourj of 

 I z and 3 o'clock, paying 3 gs. entries and ten shillings 

 and sixpence to the Clerk of the Course. 



Swaffham Races seem to have enjoyed a 

 measure of fame in their day. In 1789 a horse 

 was entered by the Prince Regent, and among 

 the company were the Earl of Oxford, Lord 

 Claremont, Sir William White, Sir John Wode- 

 house, and Mr. Thomas Newman Coke, the last 

 of whom drove on the course with a team of 

 six black horses and the same number of out- 

 riders. 



Many little villages in East Anglia at Whit- 

 suntide and Easter had their so-called race meet- 





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