Newmarket Racecourse

Petersburg County · dedicated 2018 · 1700 E. Washington Street

Newmarket Racecourse, a one-mile oval built just north of here by 1793, was among the foremost tracks in the nation when horse racing was America's most popular sport. Races were significant social events that attracted competitors and spectators from great distances. Champions Sir Archy, Boston, and Planet raced at Newmarket, and prominent horseman William R. Johnson, known as the “Napoleon of the Turf,” based his stables here. Many of the track’s grooms, exercise riders, jockeys, and trainers were enslaved African Americans. During the Civil War, fighting took place near the racecourse on 18 June 1864 and 25 March 1865. The track declined after the war and ceased to exist by 1903.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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