ORGANISERS of events to mark 400 years of horse-racing in Perth have revealed a fascinating link to the Jacobites.
This month's Perth Festival will signal the start of celebrations of the anniversary of racing in the city, which began on the South Inch, one of the Perth's two big public parks.
Former jockey Sam Morsehead, now manager of Perth Racecourse, says there is a local tradition and archive material that showed the Perth races were used as a front for Jacobite planning in 1744.
That was prior to the 1745 rebellion, which ended in defeat at Culloden in 1746. The battle's anniversary is tomorrow.
There were many prominent Jacobites around Perth in the run-up to the rebellion. Mr Morsehead said: "It was a sport that attracted the interest of noblemen from all over Scotland, many of whom were strong supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
"Indeed, Perth was considered to be a Jacobite stronghold and it would have been a suitable place for noblemen to discuss plans to reclaim the English throne, under the guise of watching horse-racing."
The link also continued after the defeat: many Scottish noblemen, including some from Perth, were forced into exile after Culloden, but Mr Morsehead said when they returned they formed the Perthshire Hunt in 1784.
The hunt took over the running of races in the city from the Town Council and racing moved across to the North Inch park, beside the River Tay.
Mr Morsehead added: "In 1906, the Fifth Earl of Mansfield offered parkland at Scone Palace as a new race course.
"It had been getting a bit rowdy at the North Inch with some rather unsavoury behaviour, so the races moved."
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