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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Jockey Club
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Until recently the all-powerful governing body of British flat racing. It began in about 1750 as a typical London *club, a social gathering of rich men with an interest in the turf. Needing a place to meet at *Newmarket, the centre of British racing, the club leased a plot of land there in 1752 and a building (the 'Coffee Room') was constructed. Over the years the Jockey Club expanded, until it owned all the land at Newmarket used for racing and training; by the same token it became accepted as the regulating and disciplinary committee for all flat racing in the country. In recent years it has come to seem an anachronism that a self-elected aristocratic club should be in charge of the multi-million-pound racing industry, and in the early 1990s the Jockey Club yielded control of most aspects of the sport to a newly formed British Horseracing Board.
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