Horse Race History

Events in Sport

  • 1540-02-09 The first recorded race meet in England (Roodee Fields, Chester)
  • 1809-04-18 First run of 2,000 guineas horse race at Newmarket, England
  • 1815-07-15 1st flat horse race held at English race track Cheltenham on Nottingham Hill
  • 1838-01-01 1st official horse race in South Australia-Adelaide
  • 1860-06-27 First running of the Queen's Plate at Toronto's Carleton Track - North America's oldest continuously run horse race [1]
  • 1861-09-22 Federal troops shoot and kill 12 Navajo men, women and children, and wound 40 more, following a dispute over a friendly horse race during monthly "Ration Day" at Fort Fauntleroy in Bear Springs. Territory of New Mexico [1]
  • 1864-08-02 Saratoga Racecourse, America's oldest Thoroughbred racetrack, opens its inaugural meet with four days of racing
  • 1905-02-15 1st thoroughbred horse race meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas
  • 1942-07-18 1st legal New Jersey horse race in 50 years; Garden State Park track opens
  • 1950-04-26 Last horse race at Havre de Grace Track in Md, is run
  • 1951-07-14 1st color telecast of a sporting event (CBS-horse race)

1st Win for Cordero Jr.

1960-06-15 Ángel Cordero Jr. wins his 1st of over 7,000 horse races

  • 1962-07-07 Bill Hartack becomes 8th jockey to win 3,000 American thoroughbred races

Sports History

1981-08-30 Bill Shoemaker becomes the first jockey to win a $1 million thoroughbred horse race when John Henry takes the inaugural Arlington Million by a nose over The Bart

Birthdays in Sport

  • 1831-02-12 John Morrissey, Irish born American boxer, US Congressman developer of Saratoga Springs horse race track, born in Templemore, Ireland (d. 1878)
  • 1985-04-10 Eddie Castro, Panamanian jockey (record 9 wins in one race meeting 2005), born in Los Santos Province, Panama