\n Leasowe Golf Club was once home to England\u2019s first horse racecourse, established in 1593 by Ferdinando, 5th Earl of Derby and used as a racetrack and training ground until the early 1800s.\n<\/p>\n
\n During a visit to the club on Sunday, Wirral Mayor Councillor Mary Jordan officially renamed the sixth hole ‘The Racecourse’ in honour of its equestrian history.\n<\/p>\n
\n The renaming took place during the annual ‘Wallasey Stakes’ golf tournament, which commemorates the former racetrack.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to Mike Elkerton MBE – who is a member of Leasowe Golf Club and was Racing Columnist in the Globe during the 1980s – the site is of ‘particular historical significance’, believed to be the birthplace of organised horse racing in England.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the early 18th century, the original ‘Wallasey Stakes’ was reportedly the richest horse race in the country and a forerunner of the modern Derby.\n<\/p>\n
\n The race later moved to Newmarket and then Epsom, where a coin toss between the 8th Earl of Derby and Lord Bunbury led to its renaming as ‘The Derby.’\n<\/p>\n
\n Although racing ended in the late 1700s, the land remained a training ground for horses until it was partly lost to coastal erosion in the early 19th century.\n<\/p>\n
\n The golf course was established in 1891 by John Ball Jnr, one of the era\u2019s most distinguished amateur golfers and the club’s first captain, who held the post for four years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Today, Leasowe Golf Club occupies land once described as the ‘cradle of horse racing,’ and remains a proud part of Wirral\u2019s sporting history.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ceremony was attended by Councillor Cherry Povall, members of the management committee, and club members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leasowe Golf Club was once home to England\u2019s first horse racecourse, established in 1593 by Ferdinando, 5th Earl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-646326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}