A Group of Tickets and Passes Related to Horse Racing

YORKSHIRE, Richmond, Richmond Racecourse, copper-gilt, two-tiered grandstand, rev. wreath, named (41, Lord Dundas), 36mm, 17.02g (W –; D & W –; DNW 138, –). Very fine and extremely rare; pierced for suspension £200-£300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Group of Tickets and Passes Related to Horse Racing.

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Thomas Dundas, 1st Baron Dundas, FRS (1741-1820), Marske Hall and later Aske Hall, N. Yorkshire; educ. Eton and St Andrews; MP for Richmond (N. Yorkshire) 1763-8, then for Stirlingshire 1768-94; Lord Lieutenant and Vice Admiral of the Orkney and Shetland Isles; Col. of the North Yorkshire Militia; Governor of the Forth & Clyde Canal Co and creator of the town of Grangemouth.

Until 1775 one of the most prestigious races in the country, the royally-sponsored Hambleton One Hundred Guineas, had been held at Hambleton, above Sutton Bank, N. Yorkshire. In 1776 it was decided to change the venue, and stage the race at York and Richmond in alternating years, starting with York and moving to Richmond in 1777. This meant that the facilities at Richmond needed to be improved, and, at a public meeting held in September 1775 it was decided to raise finance for an ambitious project to build a permanent new stand 'upon some part of the race Ground of Richmond for the better accommodation of the ladies and gentlemen attending the Races'. The result was a public subscription, each subscriber paying five guineas for a gilt token which entitled him or her to a perpetual admission ticket which could be transferred. Eighty-one people subscribed with £485 being quickly raised. It is probable that work on the new stand started in 1776 and it is believed that the architect John Carr had a hand in its design; the grandstand was opened in 1777