A horse-race it is recorded was run on the River Ouse when it was frozen over in 1607, and also in the following year. There is plenty of evidence as to the fact of horse-racing having taken place in these early days (1590); but it was long after that period before the sport was made to assume the shape which immediately preceded the business kind of racing with which so many persons are familiar at the present time. Some racing commentators have asserted that racing began on Knavesmire, so early as 1709, and that the races at once became successful. The citizens, it is said, in that year "made a collection, with which they purchased five plates, which were run for over Knavesmire, and from that period to the present the annual meetings have been supported with much spirit." But the first race contested on that now famous course was in the year 1731. It was run on Monday, August 16th, being for His Majesty's 100 gs. for six-year-old horses, etc., 12 st., four-mile heats, the race being won by Lord Lonsdale's c. h. Monkey, by his lordship's bay Arabian, dam by Curwen's bay barb; racing continued throughout the whole week, four of the contests being in four-mile heats, the other race being the Ladies' Plate of £60, for five-year-old horses, etc., carrying 10 st. The racing, as established in Yorkshire in 1709, took place over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, about one and a half miles north of the city. From that year onwards, racing was kept up over the same course, and the reason given for changing to the Knavesmire was the races having on one occasion to be postponed on account of the River Ouse having overflowed its banks. It will, perhaps, give a good idea of the times now spoken of, when it is stated that, during the running over Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, on Monday, August 2nd, 1714, when the race for a gold cup of the value of £60 was being decided, an express arrived with news of the death of Her Majesty the Queen (Anne), upon which the nobility and gentry immediately left the field, and attended the Lord Mayor (William Redman, Esq.), and Archbishop Dawes, who proclaimed His Majesty King George I., after which most of the nobility set off for London. In the year 1715, there was run at Black Hambledon, a race for His Majesty's Gold Cup, value 100 gs., for five-year-old mares. This cup, it has been explained, was originally free to be run for by any horse, mare, or gelding not exceeding five years old; but in the reign of Queen Anne, the conditions were altered, mares only being allowed to run. The first Hambledon Gold Cup was won by Sir William Strickland's horse, Sphynx. The Gold Cup continued to be run for apparently till 1775, when, by His Majesty's commands, it was ordered to be run for alternately at York and Richmond.