SPRINT AND MIDDLE- DISTANCE RACING
Two kinds of races were common during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I: cross-country “hunt races” open only to riders who were of the nobility, and quartermile sprint races that any jockey and horse could enter. The small and heavily muscled Hobby had since ancient times been the choice for short-course racing. The image at right shows two Hobbies in the 1640s vying for a win as the judge waits by the finishline post, puffing on a pipe and holding aloft the silver bell that he will ring as the winner crosses the line. This type of race was exciting and popular with king and commoner alike. Even after he codified middle-distance racing, Charles II continued to enjoy sprint racing. A colored engraving from 1687 shows the King (with long hair and coat, mounted upon a dun-colored stallion, right foreground) not sitting in the royal box but actually “following the field” as they near the finish-line post on a course laid out before the gates of Windsor Castle. The horses contesting this race are either Hobbies or the somewhat leggier English Running-Horses, which were crosses of Barb or Turcoman with Hobby.
The requirements for a
sprint-race were simple and a course could be set up by cordoning off a relatively small area of flat ground or section of dirt road. Before the reign of James I, shortcourse races were held on market days and at seasonal fairs; James was the first monarch to decree it lawful also to “sport” on Sundays
after church. The prize to the winner was often a “town bell” or “town plate” (a covered silver-plated tankard presented by city fathers). The races drew large crowds; interest was keen, betting was furious, and both proved good for business.
By contrast, the middledistance races encouraged by Charles II could not be held except at a course
built for the purpose. Newmarket was the first of these, established in 1665. Older racecourses existed, and during and after Charles’ time many were reconfigured and rebuilt to accommodate the new fashion. Above is a panoramic view of the Knavesmire Course, Yorkshire, as it looked in 1731. Note the “round heat” with palings separating the infield from the track, and the “long course” which extended over rolling ground.
In studying historical events that occurred before the invention of photography, we can depend upon artwork to yield valuable clues. George Stubbs (1724–1806) is particularly reliable. Thanks to his extensive anatomical studies, Stubbs’ paintings of people, horses and other animals are highly realistic.
There was a fashion in the 18th century for a certain type of distortion of the horse’s conformation (see portrait of Whistlejacket, page 59) which some of Stubbs’ clients insisted upon. But even then, the main features of the animal’s build and coloration are evident.
Stubbs’ realistic portraits “Lord Grosvenor’s Arabian With a Groom” (ca. 1765) and “Grey Horse With an Arabian Groom at Creswell Crags” (ca. 1763) are cases in point. Observation reveals that neither of these animals is Asil: Grosvenor’s horse is colored like a Barb, and both animals have the cresty neck and muscular, rounded haunches typical of the Barb or English RunningHorse (Barb X Hobby). Note also the small size, not greater than 14 hands. Many readers have probably never seen a North African Barb horse, for they are
much rarer today than in 17th and 18th century England, where they functioned not only as racehorses but were esteemed for the Classical High School.
Modern readers familiar only with dressage as it has been practiced since the 1970s may enjoy studying the wonderful passage and perfect collection of Mabrouk, a cream-and-red Algerian Barb trained for the High School in 1917 by Capt. E. Beudant.
John Wootton, a contemporary of Stubbs, was another famous painter of equestrian portraits. His many paintings and engravings of the Bloody-
Shouldered Arabian show the contrast between Arabian vs. Barb or Hobby conformation. In the Bloody-Shouldered Arabian we clearly see the refined head with luminous eyes; fine, straight, crestless neck; proportionally long limbs; relatively upright shoulder, low withers, level croup and high tail carriage typical of the Asil horse, bred for centuries by the nomadic Bedouins for long-distance coursing and guerilla warfare carried on through longdistance desert raids.
Compare the conformation of the Bloody-Shouldered Arabian to that of the Darley “Arabian,” a horse that was actually of mostly Turcoman extraction.