Question for all of your historians...

[Secretariat7]

Does anyone know the reason why the early tracks here (e.g., the Union Course, etc.) were dirt rather than grass? I am wondering, since the tracks were supposedly modeled after the English tracks (which were turf). I have been searching and searching for an answer...

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Secretariat7]

By the way, I was trying to fix the typos in the title, but for some reason, it won't let me. :/

[raven]

good Question!

[ElPrado1]

We'll start with England.

England has pastures and fields and long level stretches that have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years. It's been manicured for 2000 years, minimum. Putting in a turf course involved finding a level stretch and cutting down a couple of trees. Where racing became easiest was where it started, on the Downs, which were leveled by glaciers millions of years ago and windswept enough that they were already treeless.
Then you want to continue the time honored traditions of racing your horses against each other on a whole new continent that didn't have the same type of terrain, hadn't been leveled by glaciers (they didn't get down to the vicinity of Virginia which was the likely area racing started in America in Colonial days) and had things called trees in the way.
You started racing them on dirt roads. If you were lucky, you found a good straight stretch. If your luck ran out a bit, it wasn't very long, thus giving people a market for horses that could run very fast but not very far. This gave you quarter horses.
If your luck held out a bit more you had a good river valley bottom that you could clear the bumps and logs off of and you managed to find a space big enough that you could scrape off a fairly flat oval (you wanted people to be able to watch, so a 4 mile long stretch wasn't too practical) you cleared the trees and debris and that created bare dirt. You then threw up your hands because it wasn't centuries of already growing turf with roots extending 10 feet down holding it in place when horses hooves cut into it. Bare dirt would have to do. Oh well, you at least got it flat.

[Blue Jeans]

Interesting thread. Thanks.

[gravano]

We need Miss Woodford for this.

[Slewbopper]

Just guessing but it would seem that dirt tracks allow for longer meets since the surface is maintainable from race to race, day to day, and even month to month. Dirt doesn't get torn up like a turf course.

Using tennis as a comparison, look at what the courts look like at the beginning of Wimbledon and by the time the finals roll along.

Good question

[gravano]

American racing started on grass, but moved to dirt later.

[Man o' Taz]

This excerpt is readily available at multiple site...but nowhere does it indicate whether or not it is a dirt/turf course...

Horse racing in the United States and on the North American continent dates back to the establishment of another course named Newmarket -- on the Salisbury Plains section of what is now known as the Hempstead Plains of Long Island, New York in 1665. This first racing meet in North America was supervised by New York\'s colonial governor, Richard Nicolls. The area is now occupied by the present Nassau County, New York region of Greater Westbury and East Garden City. The South Westbury section is also (appropriately) known as Salisbury.

Examining turf racing history in North America...it seems that this track was likely dirt...

Now, the reason for it being dirt is hard to find, but I believe the US has always had less rain that Great Britain and as a result it may have been an issue of practicality...watering turf tracks may have been difficult...

Since turf racing in this country did not take off until late in our horse racing development..

I believe this is the first documented turf track/race...

http://www.google.com/#q=turf+racing...ef791ca8a5e850

1734Feb 1734 - This acquisition of thoroughbred stock Increased the number and value of racing prizes, and extended the area of operations into the Carolinas in the South, and New Jersey and New York in the North. The first race nrn in South Carolina was in February 1734 ...This acquisition of thoroughbred stock Increased the number and value of racing prizes, and extended the area of operations into the Carolinas in the South, and New Jersey and New York in the North. The first race nrn in South Carolina was in February 1734, for £20. It took place over "the Green," on Charleston Neck. This shows that the earlier races in America were actually on the turf, as they have always been in England. Show more



Canada developed the Queen's Plate as well...in 1860---but they continue a closer relationship with Great Britain than we did...

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...-history/print

It was 147 years ago -- June 27, 1860 to be exact -- when North America's oldest horse racing classic, the Queen's Plate, received royal blessing from Queen Victoria after a petition presented to her the previous April on behalf of the Toronto Turf Club by two prominent citizens, Sir Casimir Gzowski and Thomas Patteson.
In those days, Woodbine, the dream of E.P. Taylor, was not in the cards of Toronto's city fathers as a site for the classic, but it was held at a race track in an area we know today as the busy street corner of Keele and Dundas.


Turf History
by Ray Paulick
Date Posted: 12/22/2001 6:47:28 PM

Ray Paulick
Editor-in-Chief
North American racing did not recognize a grass champion until 1953, the year after the Washington, D.C., International was inaugurated at Laurel and the first year of the United Nations Handicap at Atlantic City. Female turf champions were not officially recognized until 1979, when Trillion won that division's inaugural Eclipse Award (although the brilliant mare Dahlia was named champion turf runner over males in 1974).

In the 48 years since Iceberg II was named that first turf champion in 1953, only a handful of runners have been named both Horse of the Year and outstanding turf male or female. The first was Round Table, a two-time grass champion who excelled on dirt and turf and was Horse of the Year in 1958. Dr. Fager was turf champion off just one race in his 1968 Horse of the Year campaign. Secretariat made his final two starts on grass in 1973, when he was voted turf champ and Horse of the Year.


John Henry, Horse of the Year and outstanding turf runner in both 1981 and 1984, was a grass specialist who also ran very well on dirt, winning a third Eclipse in 1981 when he was voted best older male. Only two horses have won Horse of the Year racing exclusively on turf: All Along in 1983, and Kotashaan in 1993. A third turf champion, Fort Marcy, who shared Horse of the Year honors with Personality in 1970, ran twice on dirt that year in non-stakes races.


Turf racing doesn't have the tradition on this continent that it does in Europe, where horse racing is conducted almost exclusively on grass. It also doesn't have the numbers: of 60,572 races run in North America in 2000, only 5,140, or 8.5%, were run on turf. That's obviously because many tracks do not have a turf course. Among those that do, only a limited number of races can be run over the grass because of the challenge of keeping it in safe condition for the horses and jockeys.
Yet turf racing, as seen through the eyes of the American Graded Stakes Committee, is almost as important as dirt racing in this country. Most surprisingly, the horses having the greatest opportunity to win a grade I race are older males competing on turf. Seventeen such races are grade I, compared to just 14 races at a mile or more on dirt for the same aged runners. Male horses that compete for the Triple Crown have just 10 opportunities to win a grade I race restricted to 3-year-olds.
In 2002, 30 of the 101 grade I races are scheduled for the turf. Overall, 173 of America's 486 graded stakes for 2002 will be turf races, or 35.6%. By comparison, of the 2,651 stakes run in North America in 2000, 587, or 22.1%, were on turf.



Turf races were not always afforded such lofty status. In 1973, when the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association first graded races, only 12 of the 64 grade I races were run on turf, less than 20%. There were nine grade I races on turf for older male runners going a mile or more, compared to 13 on dirt.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...9/turf-history

[Man o' Taz]

American racing started on grass, but moved to dirt later.

Do you have a cite for that?

[gravano]

The best primer for the origins of racing I've read is from this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Match-Ra.../dp/0618556125

[Secretariat7]

Thank you all. Excellent insight, as usual!

[Harrison Bergeron]

The first racetrack in the US is reported by many web sources as having been built in 1665 on Long Island, near where Belmont Park is today.

One wanting to research this may be able to get some keywords from this article:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...DD405B858CF1D3

another interesting link:
http://community.tvg.com/t5/The-Gran...EW/td-p/211823

have fun!

[Secretariat7]

Thank you, Harrison. That article is quite interesting, as it is the first I've read that credits the establishment of Newmarket to Gov. Lovelace rather than Nicolls. Thanks for posting it!

[ElPrado1]

Ok, I got the starting spot wrong.

[gravano]

You can search in The Great Match Race on Amazon

It gives credit to Colonel John Sherman, who fought along George Washington in the Revolutionary War, credit for creating the first dirt track at Union Course around 1823 or so. Apparently he thought horses would run much faster over dirt and it would be more exciting.

It's on p. 124

[Kelly Kip]

I have The Great Match race here in my library. I found it be a very informative read.

[Secretariat7]

Thanks!!

[Man o' Taz]

I have The Great Match race here in my library. I found it be a very informative read.

Can you find an easy reference point in that text (which I just ordered from Amazon -- thanks gravano) where it indicates that turf racing was occurring in the US at the time horse racing began in North America?

I have been to a number of museums and done a lot of reading and I have never seen anything to indicate that at first there was turf racing in the US and then it went to dirt racing which is why I asked gravano for the cite.

Thanks.

[Secretariat7]

Everything that I have read seems to indicate that the early tracks here in the U.S. were dirt. (I always wondered why, for example, the Derby was based on Epsom, but was on dirt rather than turf.) I would also be interested in the cite that states otherwise.

Thanks again for the feedback.