page_title: Horse racing in Wales
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Horse racing in Wales / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Horse racing at Bangor-Is-Coed (Bangor on Dee) in Wales circa 1930.
context_page_description: Horse racing in Wales has a long tradition dating back to the 18th century. Wales has held flat racing, National Hunt and harness racing, and presently has three racecourses, at Chepstow, Bangor-on-Dee and Ffos Las. The Welsh National is held annually at Chepstow between Christmas and New Year and is the highlight of the Welsh racing calendar.
context_section_description: Organised horse racing in Wales originated with the gentry and aristocracy and among the earliest organised racing were point-to-point meetings. By 1833 there were internationally recognised flat races at many locations around the country, including Cowbridge, Haverfordwest, Conwy, Aberystwyth, Brecon and Wrexham. The Cowbridge races were very popular and attracted entries from as far away as Yorkshire. Steeplechasing began at Bangor-on-Dee racecourse in the 1850s and is still a racecourse to this day.
  When diarist John Byng in 1787 mentioned that he was passing 'not far from Cowbridge race ground' he was acknowledging the fame of the race meetings, which had grown from a family occasion into 'the Glamorgan races'. Early races were the scene of heavy betting and attracted other entertainments as diverse as exclusive balls, pig racing and prostitution. This brought large crowds to races and a mingling of the social classes though the sport itself remained in the control of the gentry. The Welsh gentry used horseracing to integrate themselves with their English counterparts, to gain a place for themselves in an elite British culture. In the mid and later 19th century there was growing pressure from religious quarters due to what was seen as the immoral and drunkenly behaviour that accompanied race days. This led to the Wrexham Races being abandoned between 1862 and 1890.
  The 20th century saw the Welsh working class embrace the sport, mainly due to newspaper coverage and the spread of off-course betting. 1926 saw the opening of Chepstow Racecourse at St Arvans, and although remaining on the margins of British horseracing until the opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966, it is now the country's premier course. Chepstow holds the Welsh National, which is held annually between Christmas and New Year. Due to the growth of other leisure activities and the cost of keeping and breeding horse, flat and  national hunt racing went into long-term decline in Wales from the middle of the 19th century. From the middle of the 20th century most of the country's racecourses had closed. Today only three racecourses survive in Wales, Chepstow, Bangor-on-Dee and Ffos Las which was opened in 2009.
caption: Steeplechasing at Bangor-Is-Coed circa 1930
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