When King Charles II reclaimed England’s throne in 1660, he brought more than restored monarchy. He brought the party back.
Known as the “Merry Monarch,” Charles reveled in theater, art, good wine — and horse racing. His love of the sport ran so deep that when the Lords Proprietors named the Carolina colony’s capital after him in 1670, that passion came ashore too. Nearly 350 years later, his namesake city still carries the rhythm of hooves — most vividly at the Steeplechase of Charleston, returning Nov. 9 to Stono Ferry Racetrack in Hollywood.
The Sport of Kings, Charleston Edition
Long before Netflix or neon lights, horse racing was Charleston’s main event.
Historians credit Charles II with reviving the “Sport of Kings” after a grim Puritan decade that banned it. He raced at England’s Newmarket track, founded the King’s Plates (100-guinea prizes fit for royalty), and bred a new generation of thoroughbreds from Arabian stallions and his queen’s prized “royal mares.”
That enthusiasm galloped straight into Charles Town. By 1734, a notice in the South-Carolina Gazette announced the colony’s first local race near what’s now the Gaillard Center. A year later came the York Course, followed by the New Market track — a nod to the king’s favorite course back home.
In 1758, the South Carolina Jockey Club was born — the first of its kind in the colonies. For decades, horse racing defined Charleston’s social calendar. February’s Race Week drew planters, merchants, and visiting dignitaries eager to see — and be seen — at the Washington Course, a tree-lined track where the city’s elite gathered in tailored coats and top hats.
As The Post and Courier noted, Bostonian Josiah Quincy II once wrote in 1773 that Charleston gentlemen were “mostly men of turf and gamesters.”
From War to Revival
The glory days thundered to a halt in 1861. After John Cantey’s mare Albion claimed the final prewar trophy, the Washington Race Course was transformed into a Confederate prison camp. When the cannons fell silent, Charleston’s Jockey Club tried to revive the sport — but without the wealth that once fueled it, the races faded by 1882.
The old course became Hampton Park, its oval preserved as Mary Murray Boulevard. Runners, walkers, and dog lovers trace the same path once carved by thoroughbreds and riders in silks.
Full Circle at Stono Ferry
And yet, the circle keeps turning.
This November, the Steeplechase of Charleston carries forward a tradition older than the nation itself — a celebration of speed, pageantry, and shared delight in the beauty of the horse.
It’s a day King Charles II would have loved: fine company, fine sport, and a city still alive with the spirit of the “Merry Monarch.”
