The history of horse racing in, or around, the market town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, can be traced back to March 7, 1619, with the inaugural running of the principal race of the day, the Guilded Cup, later the Stanford Gold Cup, on Wittering Heath, south of the town. Nearly a century later, in 1717, Stamford Racecourse was relocated further north, but still on the Burghley Estate, to the west of the village of Easton-on-the-Hill, where it would remain until its final meeting on July 25, 1873.
The original course was an oval, approximately a mile and a quarter in extent but, in 1818, under the auspices of Brownlow Cecil, Second Marquess of Exeter, it was extended westward by the creation of a straight mile course. Two years later, the majority of the racecourse was railed, rather than roped, in and a new entrance was created. Indeed, the straight mile course is still visible, south of the aptly-named Racecourse Road in Easton-on-the-Hill and part of the grandstand, built in 1766, still stands, albeit that it was converted to a residential dwelling in 1994.
Stamford Racecourse continued to prosper throughout the nineteenth century, thanks in no small part to the arrival of the railway in Stamford in1846. However, the death of the Second Marquess on January 16, 1867 signalled the beginning of the end for Stamford Racecourse; his eldest son, William Alleyne Cecil, the Third Marquess, withdrew permission for his land to be used for horse racing and, by 1875, the once hallowed turf had been returned to the plough. Interestingly, the last ever winner at Stamford Racecourse was ridden by a youthful Fred Archer, a.k.a. ‘The Tin Man’, who would go on to become champion jockey for the next 13 years running.