SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN men on their return from the races were of course numerous, and cock fighting was freely indulged in when nothing else was going on. 1 The last Barnet races were held on Sep- tember 6, 1870, when Mr. Hodson's Pole- axe won the principal race. The races finished where High Barnet railway station now stands. Race meetings were held intermittently at Berkhampstead, Dunstable, Ware, Northaw, Tring and Wormley at different periods between 1729 and 1769. In August, 1804, a two days' race meeting was held at Bushey Meadow near Watford, and Lord Clarendon was the breeder of the winner of the Galloway Races. The Brocket Hall Races also appear in the Racing Calendar from 1 804. When Lord Melbourne lived at Brocket he kept open house. George IV, as prince regent, always attended this race meeting and ran horses there, as did Sir John Shelley, Sir Charles Bunbury and other leading men on the turf. Brocket Park was used in 1816 as a training ground for a few racehorses by the well known trainer, Thomas Coleman, when he first came into Hertfordshire in that year. In 1820 Lord Verulam allowed Coleman to train his horses in Gorhambury Park, and shortly afterwards Coleman took the Chequers Inn at St. Albans, where he built large train- ing stables, and was employed to train horses for Lord George Bentinck, Lord Verulam and many other well known racing men. GORHAMBURY RACES. In 1829 Coleman held a race meeting at No Man's Land near St. Albans. He persuaded King George IV to run a horse in the Gorhambury Stakes, which his Majesty won. The meeting at No Man's Land not having been a financial success, Coleman induced Lord Verulam the next year to allow the meeting to be held in Gorham- bury Park. This meeting proved very suc- cessful, and from 1830 until the death of Lord Verulam in 1845 the meeting was regularly held for two days each year, be- tween the Epsom meeting and Ascot, and was patronized by all the leading members of the turf. The following account is given in the Sporting Magazine of the races held there in 1 844 : ' We have often written about this agreeable diversion, the easy distance from London, the magnificent park wherein the running takes place, surrounded as it is by the most picturesque scenery, the easy modes of access, it is calculated to afford induce- Sporting Magazine, 1 794. ments to an agreeable trip for a pleasant party. Amongst those present were the Duke of Rutland, the Marquises of Exeter and Worcester, the Earls of Clarendon, Chesterfield, Albemarle, Sefton, Craven, Stradbroke, Maidstone and March, Lords Macdonald, Glamis, E. Fitzclarence, etc., etc.' The racing lasted two days, and the stakes were named the Craven, the Gorham- bury Handicaps, the Pras Stakes, the Pond- yards Stakes, and the St. Albans Handicap. The horses in the latter race had to be rid- den by officers in the army or navy, or by members of White's, Brooks', Boodle's and a few other clubs, including the Herts Hunt Club. A whip was subscribed for by the ladies, to be given to the rider of the winner. Upon this day, May 22, 1844, the winner was ridden by Captain Clark, who ' immedi- ately received the whip from the fair hands of the lovely lady Jane Grimston, who com- plimented the winner on his improved horse- manship.' Lord Verulam's horse, Robert de Gorham, which had run third in the Derby, ran at these races. After the death of Lord Verulam in 1845, Coleman bought the Lilley Hoo Farm, and continued to train there until he retired and went to live at Barnet, where he wrote his interesting Recollections, which were published in Baity $ Magazine in 1876 and 1877. Coleman, who died in 1877 at a great age, was a man quite out of the common a man of original ideas and of great observation.* Born in a humble position, he raised himself by sheer force of will and intellect, and from riding gallops as an exercise lad he became the trusted councillor on matters connected with horseflesh to some of the greatest men of the time. Lord Verulam bred many good horses, and ' Gorhambury,' bred by his lordship, ran second for the Derby in 1 843. THE Hoo RACES. From 1831 to 1836 flat races were run at The Hoo, Kimpton, during Lord Dacre's mastership of the Hert- fordshire Hounds, but they were only open to farmers living in the county or to mem- bers of the hunt. After the Hoo Races were given up, a 50 plate was given by the hunt to be run for by farmers in the Hertfordshire Hunt country at the Harpenden Races. But this failed to attract farmers' horses, so it was discontinued, and point to point steeplechases a He was a great advocate for the more natural treatment of the racehorse, which has quite re- cently been so successfully adopted in this country by the American trainers. 367
