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FAMOUS OLD RACE TRACKS Newmarket in Virginia Was Es ¬ tablished Before Eevolution Washington Course In Charleston S C CJfamcd Jfamcd After First President Was the theScene Scene of Many Historic Struggles Race courses were established in various parts of the United States during the clos ¬ ing years of the eighteenth century Vir ¬ ginia South Carolina and New York had then long enjoyed the advantages to be de ¬ rived from formal racing arranged under the auspices of turf associations and engaged in upon courses regularly laid out outWhen When the nineteenth century opened sev ¬ eral courses were in existence in Virginia One of the oldest of these was the Newmar ¬ ket at Petersburg Va which was estab ¬ lished before the Revolution and maintained its standing and popularity for several suc ¬ cessive generations It was laid out in its complete style previous to the year 1800 but the jockey club that ultimately under ¬ took its management was not organized un ¬ til 1803 1803The The record of one of the earliest meetings upon this course possesses somcthnig more than passing historical interest It intro ¬ duces us to the names of several of the prominent owners and horses that were leaders in Virginia turf affairs at that time The report shows that for a race of four mile heats in the spring of 1802 there were entered Dr Parteurs Snapdragon by Col ¬ lator Bellefield Starks Bucephalus by Dare ¬ devil John Hoomes imported Moll in the Wad Milo Seldens Prosperine by Daredevil Thomas Grays Vulture by Daredevil A T Dixons Thunderclap by Wildair and Mr Swans Cygnet It will be noted that four of these horses were sired by Daredevil which was one of the famous stalliona of Virginia a century and a quarter ago agoSNAPDRAGON SNAPDRAGON WINS RACE RACERecords Records of the time in which this race was run are lacking but Snapdragon won the second and third heats and the race while Bucephalus was second having carried off the first heat Prosperine Vulture and Thunderclap were distanced in the third heat and Moll in the Wad in the second heat while Cygnet was sold before starting and withdrawn withdrawnEven Even before the beginning of the nine ¬ teenth century the celebrated Washington course in Charleston S C was opened This was practically a successor to the New ¬ market course that had been in existence in that city from about fifteen years or so previous to the beginning of the Revolution ¬ ary War The South Carolina Jockey Club that controlled the Washington course was organized in 1792 and entered upon a career of brilliant arid uninterrupted success that continued even down to the breaking out of the Civil War a period of almost threequar ¬ ters of a century centuryFrom From the beginning the club was one of the strongest organizations both socially and financially that ever existed in the South devoted to the conservation of turf interests Its original proprietors were General C C Pinckney General William Continued ou twelfth page FAMOUS OLD RACE TRACKS Continued from first page pageWashington Washington General Wade Hampton Gen ¬ eral McPherson Colonel Mitchell Colonel McPherson Colonel Morris Captain White General Reed and OBrien Smith John Wil ¬ son James Ladson William Alston H M Rutledge Gabriel Manigault James Burn I Campbell William Moultrie E Fenwick and William McLeod McLeodORIGIN ORIGIN OF CLUB CLUBColonel Colonel Washington gave to the club the land upon which the course was laid out upon condition that it should receive the name of Washington in honor of his illus ¬ trious uncle the father of his country The club succeeded to the tradition and the pat ¬ ronage of the old Newmarket course that had been closed in 1791 after thirtyone years of existence was not long in becoming the great social center of Charleston CharlestonIn In its membership were comprised repre ¬ sentatives of all the old aristocratic families of the city and even of the state and it became the exponent of fashion quite as much as it was the guardian and supporter of the turf Society attached itself to the turf and the racing meetings of the year were really the great fashionable functions For many years only a single week was an ¬ nually set apart for the meeting but this was looked forward to inroughout several months preceding it as the one occasion that commanded the attention of the entire com ¬ munity not alone of Charleston but even of South Carolina CarolinaMEETING MEETING OF WIDE INTEREST INTERESTIndeed Indeed the fame of this annual meeting extended throughout the South and not in ¬ frequently attracted the attention of public men and society people from the far and distant North The first week in February was given over to this meeting and the open Ing was always on Wednesday The annual dinner of the Jockey Club occurred on this opening day and attracted horsemen states ¬ men and the gentry from all parts of the state It was a convivial occasion well cal ¬ culated to put everybody in good humor for the sport Leading turfmen from all over the South were brought together around the festal board and many were the battles good naturedly fought concerning the relative merits of different families of the thorough ¬ breds bredsWhen When racing was in full force came the great Jockey Club ball on Friday evening following the opening of the meeting This event shared in importance even the per ¬ formances on the track Elaborate and ex ¬ tensive preparations were made for it and it occupied first position as the great social event of the year in Charleston
