Horseracing [ Games & Sports ]
… 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 … best-publicized and increasingly commercial sporting activity across England and parts of Scotland and Wales. In many towns the ‘Race Week’ became a destination event in the annual recreational cycle. In Ireland racing expanded steadily … heats, often over four miles. In heat races, the winner usually had to win two heats, with rests between. This allowed towns if necessary to have only a single race daily, since several horses might each win a heat in turn. Other races …
Elite | Gambling | Horseracing | Sports | Women
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