raced for the first time at Newmarket in 1769. In 1791, Cash became the first yearling to race, and beat a three-year-old in a match at Newmarket, in receipt of 3 stones. Newmarket itself continued to grow as a centre of racing and many of the racecourse's historic meetings (with persist to this day) were established in the 1760s and 1770s. By the end of the century the 12th Earl of Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury were key influencers in the sport. Under their auspices the Derby and Oaks were established at Epsom, inspired by the St Leger and the growing popularity of shorter races, for younger horses. These races, along with the Leger and the Guineas at Newmarket (which were established early in the 19th century) became known as the Classics. At around the same time, jockeys began to earn a reputation in their own right, with early pioneers including Frank Buckle, Sam Chifney Sr and Jem Robinson. 19th century Interest in the sport was at a high throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. As Whyte's History of the English Turf noted in 1840, "For nearly a century and a half, the "Turf" has formed a favourite amusement of "Kings, Lords and Commons". Or as Rice's History reported in 1879, "for some two hundred years the pursuit of Horse-racing has been attractive to more of our countrymen than any other out-door pastime" Other traditional rural sports, including hawking, shooting and hare-hunting, had much diminished by this period, due to enclosure and "gradual refinement of manners" and racing was at its "acme". Handicap races, in which horses are assigned weights to carry in proportion to their ability, became popular from the turn of the 19th century onwards. The first had been run at Ascot in 1791 and others followed. Many have persisted to this day including the Chester Cup (from 1824), Northumberland Plate (1833), Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire Handicaps at Newmarket (both 1839), Goodwood's Stewards' Cup (1839), the Ebor at York (1843), the City and Suburban Handicap at Epsom (1851) and the traditional opener for the flat racing season, the Lincoln (1853). Steeplechasing first became organised by Tom Colman at St Albans in the early 1830s. By the end of that decade, the Grand National had been established at Aintree by William Lynn. In 1875, Sandown Park became the first racecourse to open a separate members' enclosure. By the turn of