The Chaise Match Run on Newmarket Heath

The Chaise Match Run is James Seymour's most celebrated composition, the prime version of which is now in the Yale Center for British Art (inv. no. B2014.5.25). In no small part due to the match's fame, the picture was widely copied by fellow sporting artists, including Francis Sartorius (see Christie's, London, 23 May 2008, lot 12), and was etched shortly after the event in 1751 by Charles Grigion and later by Robert Sayer (circa 1770). The race took place on 29 August 1750, with the 3rd Earl of March and the 10th Earl of Eglington racing against Theobald Taafe and Andrew Sproule. The Earls bet 1,000 guineas that a team of four horses could draw a four-wheeled carriage with one passenger 19 miles in an hour. The Earls proved victorious. Their carriage, depicted here passing the King's Gap in the ditch on the Newmarket side, was specially designed to minimize weight and they chose a young boy as the passenger. The contraption was drawn by a team of race horses and their leaders, ridden by professional jockeys.