On the 25th, four horses competed for a £30 plate. The race was only open to horses who had never won a King's Plate. King's plates were prizes given by the Monarch and run for under tough rules specifically designed to encourage the breeding of bigger, stronger animals that had real stamina.
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| "The Round Course at Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, Preparing for the King's Plate" - Peter Tillemans (1684-1734) |
Each horse carried 10 st over two heats. The entry fee for the race was 2 gs.
This was a selling race, with the winner put on sale for 150 gs or about £13,000 at current values.
The prize was won by Mr Jones's Chestnut mare, who gloried in the name Sweetest When Naked.
On the following day, four horses competed for a £20 plate again for any horse that had not won a King's plate or won the plate on the previous day. This was known as a give and take, where horses carried weights decided by their height, giving or taking weight relative to a 14 hh horse who carried 9 st. The entry fee was only one guinea, and again, the winner was to be offered for sale at 150 gs.
This race, run over two heats, was won by Mr Robinsen's [sic] chestnut horse Cupid
Entries had to be made 10 days before the start of the meeting,
Cheny funded the "Historical Lists", which he started publishing in 1727 by asking subscribers for a seven-year commitment with a half-crown to be paid with the order, 5s. Annually for the first six years, and, as a reward for loyalty, only a further half-crown in the seventh year. This sum was to be paid to various named persons but could also be given personally to the author ‘as he travels to take his accounts’. In fact, Cheny rode all over England to attend race meetings, obtain breeding information, and solicit subscriptions. He continued to publish his calendar until 1750, with some twenty-four issues in total. From 1743, these included particulars of the pedigrees of all the significant racehorses of the day.
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