SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Beresford, for Baron Hirsch, for 5,500 guineas, 

 the largest price ever given for a yearling. 88 



The first race meeting under modern con- 

 ditions held in Middlesex appears to be the 

 Enfield Races, established in 1788, and held 

 on the marshes at the bottom of Green Street, 

 when two 50 plates were run for on 23 and 

 24 September. 23 There are notices of these 

 meetings in the October numbers of the 

 Sporting Magazine for 1794-5, and also 

 in the September number for 1796, and one 

 with respect to them is given as late as 1822 

 in BelFi Life, 14 when the date had been changed 

 to 9 and i o October. ' The company ' is 

 there described as being ' by no means so 

 numerous or fashionable as we could have de- 

 sired,' and this seems to have been almost 

 the last of the meetings which, after several 

 attempts to continue them, were eventually 

 discontinued on account of the decline of local 

 interest. 25 The second of these meetings 

 (i September 1790) is noteworthy on account 

 of the arrest during the races of the notorious 

 pickpocket, George Borough, who after under- 

 going seven years' transportation became chief 

 of the police at Paramatta in Australia, and 

 composed, for the opening of one of the Sydney 

 theatres, the well known lines: 



True patriots all, for, be it understood, 

 We left our country for our country's good. 26 

 Among the meetings enumerated in Baily's 

 Turf Guide for 1864 is one at Harrow, but 

 this seems to be the only record of its existence. 

 There appear to have been also races at Ealing, 

 the course being a piece of rough common, now 

 converted into an allotment ground. Ealing 

 races are described in the Annah of Ealing as 

 having been 'always of a simple character and 

 anything but popular with the majority of the 

 inhabitants.' 



There are at present two race meetings held 

 in Middlesex. 



Of these the older and more important is 

 that of Kempton Park, established in 1889, 

 when the value of the Royal Stakes was 



The fixtures for 1910 are : 



Spring Meeting in March, one day ; Jubilee 

 Meeting in May, two days ; First Summer 

 Meeting in June, one day ; Second Summer 

 Meeting in August, two days ; September 

 Meeting, one day ; and October Meeting, 

 two days. 



The winners of the most important race, 

 the Kempton Jubilee Handicap, during the last 

 eight years have been : 



1902, Royal George . 4 yrs. 6 st. 9 Ib. 



1903, Ypsilanti . . 5 yrs. 8 st. i Ib. 



1904, Ypsilanti . . 6 yrs. 9 st. 5 Ib. 



1905, Ambition . . 4 yrs. 7 st. i Ib. 



1906, Donnetta . . 6 yrs. 8 st. i Ib. 



1907, Polar Star . . 3 yrs. 7 st. 12 Ib. 



1908, Hayden . . 4 yrs. 6st. I2lb. 



1909, Ebor . . . 4 yrs. 7 st. 7 Ib. 



In 1910 the important Jubilee meeting 

 was abandoned on account of the death of 

 his late Majesty, King Edward VII. 



The other is that at Alexandra Park, the 

 first meeting at which was held on 30 June 

 1888. The meeting is now under the 

 management of the Middlesex County Racing 

 Club, which was established in 1897, and 

 the Committee of Election and Stewards are 

 Lord Alington, Captain J. G. R. Homfray, 

 Lord Lurgan, and F. Luscombe, esq. 



The fixtures for 1910 are : 



April, two days ; Saturday after New- 

 market, I July ; Saturday after Goodwood ; 

 Saturday after Doncaster, September ; Satur- 

 day after Newmarket, i October. 



POLO 



Polo was initiated in England at a match 

 played at Hounslow between the loth Hussars, 

 who introduced the game into the country 

 from India, and the gth Lancers. Middlesex 

 therefore may claim the credit of having been 

 mainly instrumental in bringing the game 

 into notice, and the county has ever since 



" Law, Hiit. of Hampton Ct. iii, 338-9. 



** Robinson, Hist, and Antiq. of Enfield, 23-4. 



14 Beiri Life, 13 Oct. 1822. 



" Robinson, Hist, oj Enfield, 24; oiA,Enfield, 108. 



K Ibid. Borough (whose real name was Wal- 

 dron) was transported for stealing a gold watch be- 

 longing to Mr. Henry Hare Townsend of Bruce 

 Castle. 



maintained the leading position it thus 

 acquired. 1 



The Polo Club was formed in 1872, and 

 for the next two years all the important 

 matches were played at Lillie Bridge, but in 

 1874 the area of play was transferred to Hur- 

 lingham. 8 The Hurlingham Polo Committee 

 has ever since been accepted as the ruling 

 authority with respect to the game, 3 and by 

 its new rules the original size of polo grounds, 

 which was 300 by 200 yds., has been altered 

 to 300 by 1 60 yds. 4 After the establishment 

 of the County Polo Association in 1901 and 



1 Polo and Riding (Badminton Library), 254-6. 

 Ibid. 256. ' Ibid. 357. Ibid. 285. 



265 



34 



