A RARE IRISH GEORGE III RACING CUP, from the Carrickmacross Races 1770, Dublin hallmarks, in the form of a two handled loving cup with scroll handle and waisted banding decorated with repoussé and chased flowering foliage, with birds, with engraved coat of arms and vignette of a racing horse with jockey, raised on a circular spreading foot. (c.42 troy ozs). 20cm tall The history of horse racing in these islands can be traced back to the hobby horses of Henry VIII, but the foundations of modern organised racing are here in Ireland with the establishment of The Honourable Society of Sportsmen, at a coffee house in the Curragh in 1747. The English equivalent, The Jockey Club, was founded in 1751 at a meeting in the Stake and Garter in Pall Mall in London, and by 1756 The Society of Sportsmen adopted the more marketable name of their English counterparts, so leading generations of historians to award primacy to our English cousins.