noel hudson wrote the history of huntingdon racecourse.

​In 1986 Huntingdon racecourse in the county of Cambridgeshire celebrated its centenary and in commemoration of the great achievement, so many racecourses had perished during the previous 100-years, Noel Hudson penned an account of what has become its first one-hundred years. In 2021, of course, the racecourse is 135 years young and I am glad to report going from strength-to-strength.
Although I cannot remember the year, though I suspect it was not far removed from the centenary year of the racecourse, though from the perspective of now, of course, the blurriness of memory suggests it might well have been in the dark days of the 1950’s, I can recollect a personal anecdote from a day at Huntingdon racecourse.
We had taken ‘our best horse’, you know one of those horses who would have a Gold Cup if it had been trained by Henderson (he was actually training back in the dark ages of this story) or any one of the top trainers, but who, after being the ‘best young horse to come out of East Anglia for many years’, not my words but the words of McKenzie or Selby of the point-to-point book, ran fairly moderately in a couple of early season novice chases, and we decided, trying manfully to appear more professional than we actually were, to return him to hurdles (he had won a selling hurdle at Huntingdon as a raw, almost unrideable 4-year-old) in a 3-mile hurdle at the same venue.
To cut a long story short, he finished second at fancy odds and would perhaps have won if I, man enough now to take the blame, had not given the rider, Gee Armitage, the implicit instruction not to use the whip as the horse took a dim view of being told what to do and generally contrived to embarrass those who loved him when a rider thought he or she was his master.
Just to make a disappointing day that little bit more annoying, in my capacity of navigator, I said turn left when I should have said right and for about twenty-miles we had no real idea where we were or how to correct the mistake.
Unusually for a book on horse racing, on the inside jacket cover there is a photograph of a Green Winged Orchid, a reference to the middle of the racecourse being designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the many rare flowers and insects that call Waterloo Meadows home.
Noel Hudson’s book, for anyone who wishes to hunt it down, is titled ‘Catherine the Great to Wordsworth’, referencing the names of the first horse to win a race at Huntingdon and the last winner in the first 100-years of the course.
Though the course originated as a country racecourse catering only for local sportsman, it has become a racecourse very popular with the top trainers and Nicky Henderson never thinks twice about running a promising horse in a novice hurdle or chase. John Francome won the last of his 1,138 winners on April 8th, 1985 in the Brampton 4-year-old Hurdle.

And in its first 100-years of racing history many top-class horses have won at the course – Sir Ken, Clair Soleil, Larbawn, Hill House, What A Myth, Specify, old Vindicated won at the age of 17 and was sold at the subsequent auction, Playlord, Grand Canyon, Captain John, Wayward Lad – and the list goes on. Grittar was second in a handicap hurdle.
And yes, I know the following fact makes me out to be rather childish but of all the facts and local knowledge contained in this book what I will always remember, names being a bit of a curiosity to me, is the name of the solicitor who first drew up the deeds of the racecourse, Kenneth Hunnybun.
In the copy of the book I purchased from Ways of Newmarket, tucked into the inside cover, there is a letter, dated 7th March 1998, from E.W. de W. Waller, Sea Mills House, Ham, Berkeley, Glos, to a friend whose first name is Timothy. Although the letter is unremarkable, I would be pleased to return it to the either family if requested.