ABSTRACT
Evening racing was first introduced in Britain at Hamilton Park racecourse near Glasgow in July 1947. The meeting, arranged on the Friday preceding a planned Saturday visit to the races by the royal family, attracted a crowd of 18,000, but was viewed with a mixture of scepticism and amusement. Although a few courses in the North and Midlands continued the experiment, it was 1955 before a London course, Alexandra Park, staged its first evening event. The main significance of this meeting was probably the arrival by plane of several riders who had already taken part in the afternoon races at Leicester, heralding a new era in jockey travel.
