From a high-society gentlemen's club to music promoter

1 Although the Jockey Club is the largest commercial group in British racing with a turnover in excess of £180 million, it is governed by Royal Charter “to act for the long-term good of British racing” in all its activities – which includes reinvesting all profits back into the sport. The Queen is the club's patron.

2 There has been considerable debate over the date of the Jockey Club's foundation but recent academic research suggests it was founded decades before the ‘official’ date of 1750. “This received wisdom was comprehensively demolished in this year's excellent book The Heath & The Horse,” says Racing Post historian John Randall. “The authors' original research pushes the date back to 1729 at the very latest, and probably 1717 or earlier.” The Jockey Club was mentioned in an early newspaper, the Daily Post, on August 2, 1729, and throughout the 1730s and '40s.

3 The Jockey Club began life as a high-society gentlemen's club. Initial meetings are recorded to have taken place in London at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall – where there was a clubhouse in later years – and also in St James's Street and Hyde Park. The Jockey Club's current office in London is on the fifth floor at 75 High Holborn; the BHA and Racehorse Owners Association are housed in the same building.