Horse racing

Racing, Britain’s first proto-modern, widely-followed national sport, opens a window into wider sociability and cultural life. The annual race week created an important urban social space, involving both public and private sociability, attracting racehorse owners and gamblers; men and women; the country and towns-folk; and elite, middling and proletariat groups. The race ground offered a liminal space encouraging social mixing and status display, commercial opportunities and political-linked intercourse. The race week offered a wide range of ancillary attractions, from assemblies, theatres, balls, eating and drinking, to cock fighting or pugilism.