- This topic has 61 replies, 17 voices, and was last updated 6 months, 3 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Some of us were talking about race names on the recent Will Brighton Set A Record thread and I am pleased and grateful for your interest. I hope it will merit a thread of its own, so here goes.
As I said there, I am researching old race names and where they came from, taking the 1982 fixture list as my base, and excluding local place names and sponsors. That left me with about 800 to investigate. They tend to disappear over time and I thought it would be nice to help preserve them somewhere other than in dusty old books of results. Examples of survivors this coming weekend are the Geoffrey Freer, Great St Wilfrid and Hornblower.
A few paragraphs about each of the 800 is my aim, probably put online eventually. I don’t expect others to do a lot of my dirty work for me, but if anyone fancies chipping in at random, please do. It’s just a bit of fun.
I expect you are already aware of the Ripon hornblower but this explains the history:
St Wilfrid was a bigwig in the Early Christian Church around 650AD. He founded Ripon Cathedral, the full name of which is the Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid. His remains are interred there
There’s also the Catholic St Wilfrid’s Church in Ripon, and St Wilfrid’s School
There is also the Ripon Rowels, a handicap run on the August Bank Holiday.
Rowels are revolving discs on the end of spurs. Ripon became famous for making high quality spurs. They were so highly regarded they inspired the expression “as true as the Ripon Rowels”, which used to be quite well known.
A set of spurs was presented to James I when he visited Ripon in 1617. The race commemorates the occasion and remembers the industry which brought fame and wealth to Ripon.
It’s been messed around with now but the old three-day Dewhurst/Champion/Cesarewitch meeting in late October at Newmarket was known as the Houghton Meeting, with the Houghton Stakes being a decent if subsidiary event for 2yo
Anyone know the derivation of Houghton?
There’s a village of Houghton in Cambridgeshire and another in Norfolk containing Houghton Hall, the seat of the Marquesses of Cholmondeley; so a tentative guess is it’s derived from the latter
Intriguingly, there’s also the Houghton Building at York racecourse
I haven’t looked extensively, beyond finding that the Houghton meeting dates back to at least 1770, and that in 1765 HRH the Duke of Cumberland, between attending Newmarket meetings, stayed at Houghton Hall in Norfolk. Further research needed!
Sticking with Ripon there is also the Ripon Bell-Ringer Handicap run over 1m4f towards the end of July. This named after the official who rings the bell each week to signify the opening of Ripon Market. A tradition dating back to the 1300’s according to this…..
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/revealed-the-unknown-story-behind-one-of-ripons-oldest-traditions-698035A general point really in that too many of our famous race names are now relegated to having the moniker ‘registered as’ attached to them and that really annoys me especially since the powers that be bang on about British racings great heritage as being a massive selling point.
Sponser’s names should be parked in front of the actual race name and not instead of….for some reason Newbury seem to do this quite a bit:
Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes aka John Porter Stakes
Dubai Duty Free Stakes aka Fred Darling Stakes
Denford Stakes aka Washington Singer Stakes
Al Rayyan Stakes aka Aston Park StakesDenford is a place between Hungerford and Newbury so I assumed the race is named after the place, but it’s apparently named after Denford Stud. Title of the race was changed in 2017. Useless fact alert – My brother used to manage a fish farm at Lower Denford.
Washington Singer was an American born owner and philanthropist.
Darn it.
I always thought the race was named after Geno Washington, vocalist with the Ram Jam Band.
Fair point made by LD73.
Ravel, are you going by registered race names where applicable?
The Horris Hill Stakes for 2yo is presumably named after the Horris Hill prep school.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Seasider, I monitored all the race names in the Racing Post online throughout 2021 and listed them separately from my 1982 collection (mega-anorakish, I know).
Very few races in 2021 (according to the RP) carried “Registered As” in their descriptions. If they were incomplete I may well have missed some connections between past and present.
My 1982 collection took no heed of registeredness.
Though many names on the 1982 list have gone,the 2021 version is almost as long due to the popularity of memorial races for recently deceased friends and relatives, who were nothing to do with the racing industry. I suspect most of these titles will be short lived. Pun intended.Ian,
Horris Hill is a geographical feature, basically the high point of the rise out of Newbury from the River Enborne on the old single lane A4. The prep school is on the northern slope near the top of the hill.
Horris Hill crops up as an important feature in one of the Battles oat Newbury during the Civil War, high ground that gave the army leaders a view over the Enborne valley.
If nothing else, this thread has encouraged AP Racing back into the fold. Something that I am extremely grateful for.
Thanks Alan – I thought naming a 2yo pattern race after a posh prep school was actually quite clever, but after reading your posting maybe that’s not the reason.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.