When was the Lincoln Handicap last run at Lincoln Racecourse?
Inaugurated, as the Lincoln Spring Handicap Stakes, in 1853, when it was run over a mile-and-a-half, the race that would eventually become the Lincoln Handicap was shortened to a mile in 1855 and renamed the Lincolnshire Handicap four years later. Apart from interruptions for World War I and World War II, the race was staged at Lincoln Racecourse, on the Carholme, or West Common, west of Lincoln city centre, every year until 1964. At that point, the Horserace Betting Levy Board withdraw its subsidy from Lincoln Racecourse, causing its closure, and the newly-christened Lincoln Handicap was transferred permanently to Doncaster Racecourse.
From its inception until the advent of all-weather racing in 1989, the Lincoln Handicap traditionally marked the start of the Flat season. Nowadays, Flat racing is staged all year round, but in its heyday, in the interwar years, the Lincolnshire Handicap was one of the highlights of the year, attracting more interest than the whole of the Cheltenham Festival. Coupled with the Grand National, which was run within a week or so, as the so-called ‘Spring Double’, the Lincolnshire Handicap was phenomenally popular which, now that it has become just another handicap, is probably difficult for modern racegoers to imagine.
Royal Ascot is, of course, a highlight of the British sporting and social calendar. Remarkably, though, as recently as 1999, the Royal Meeting featured just three highest category, Group One races. Those races were the St. James’s Palace Stakes, Gold Cup and Coronation Stakes.
The late Alexander ‘Alex’ Scott was a racehorse trainer, who was shot dead by William Clement ‘Clem’ O’Brien, a groom at the Glebe Stud in Cheveley, Newmarket, on September 30, 1994. O’Brien was already employed at Glebe Stud when Scott bought the property in 1992, but developed a ‘deep resentment’ for his new employer. Following an argument during which he told Scott he could ‘stuff his job’, O’Brien lured him to a barn, where he shot him once with a single-barreled shotgun. Scott was just 34 years old. In July, 1995, O’Brien was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.
Otherwise known as ‘vigorish’ – an Americanisation of the Russian word ‘vyigryshi’, meaning ‘winnings’ – ‘overround’ is the profit margin that bookmakers factor into a betting market, such that they make money regardless of the outcome. In a ‘fair’ market, the odds for each outcome, once converted to implied probability, should add up to 100%. In a simple coin toss, for example, the odds against tossing heads are 1/1 or ‘even money, which converts to an implied probability of (1/ (1+1))*100 = 50%; the same is true for the odds against tails, so it’s easy to see that 50% + 50% = 100%. However, to guarantee a profit, bookmakers offer odds that are shorter than they should be in a fair market.