Posts Tagged ‘1837 Inaugural Spring Races’


Posted on October 7, 2011 - by

Song to the Silver Tea Service of the Louisiana Jockey Club [Part V. - 1837 Races]

“The plate is worth going to see without the race.” – New Orleans Picayune, 22 March 1837

 

After a week of contests dominated by fillies and colts, Wednesday, Day Six, closing day of the New Orleans Jockey Club’s inaugural spring races over the new Eclipse Course at Carrollton, brought two older horses – six year olds – to the starting line for the two mile.

“These are two of the most celebrated horses that have ever come together in a two mile race,” the New Orleans Picayune announced about the entries:  (more…)


Posted on September 9, 2011 - by

Ode to a Swift Nag: Day Four, New Orleans Jockey Club 1837 Spring Races [Part III. - 1837 Races]

Thy name, swift nag, shall be enroll’d
On every sporting ground.
– New Orleans Picayune, 21 March 1837

 

Monday, Day Four of the New Orleans Jockey Club’s inaugural spring races over Captain Oliver’s new Eclipse Course might as well have been promoted as Ladies’ Day at the track.

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Posted on August 26, 2011 - by

Going to the Races? Good Luck Finding a Seat on the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad

“The day will come when the Eclipse Course will be the first in the United States.” –  New Orleans Picayune, 18 March 1837

 

New Orleans race fans in 1837 benefitted from the recently established New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, which transported thousands to the Eclipse Course five miles above the city.  Originally launched in the fall of 1835, the train – the first to implement “canned steam” that was pumped in at the terminal – lumbered along the route up St. Charles Avenue to the village of Carrollton at four miles per hour.

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Posted on August 26, 2011 - by

Captain Oliver’s Triumph: Opening Day at the Eclipse Course, March 17, 1837 [Part I. - 1837 Races]

“Many persons determined to see the race, were compelled to walk, as they did, under a burning sun, four miles and a half.” — Spirit of the Times, 8 April 1837

 

At the same time that he was Postmaster of Big Lick in 1831, twenty-one-year-old Yelverton N. Oliver was co-proprietor of the race track at Liberty, Virginia.  By 1833, he was serving as treasurer of the newly formed Jockey Club and proprietor of the course at Lynchberg.  And the next year Oliver was in Washington, reviving the city’s track.

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Posted on August 12, 2011 - by

A Toast to Bumper, the Best Winded, the Fleetest Horse of All [Part II. - 1837 Races]

“The public may probably never have it in their power again to witness such sport!” Captain Yelverton N. Oliver

 

It was a landmark day for racing in the United States, for this was a Sunday – and the first occasion for a Jockey Club anywhere to hold a contest on the Sabbath.  But this was New Orleans, and Sunday was regarded as a day of recreation; continuing the Jockey Club’s six-day race meeting over this Sunday of March 19, 1837, wasn’t considered indecent in the least.

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