Down Royal Racecourse
horse racing venue in Northern Ireland
Down Royal Racecourse is a horse racing venue near Lisburn in Northern Ireland. The most valuable race run there is the BetVictor Champion Chase, run at the Northern Ireland Festival of racing in November. The most valuable flat race to be run there annually is the Ulster Derby, which is held in June.
Racing has been taking place on the current course, at Maze near Lisburn, since the early 18th Century on land donated by Arthur Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, but the history of Down Royal goes further back to 1685 when King James II issued a Royal Charter and formed the Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders. In 1750 King George II donated £100 to run King's Plate and to the present day a race named His Majesty's Plate is run in July over 1 mile 5 furlongs with the prize money contributed to by the Privy Purse.
Although actually in the United Kingdom, racing at Down Royal comes under the authority of Horse Racing Ireland as horse-racing in the British Isles is divided on a Great Britain / All-Ireland basis.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Down Royal Racecourse” as horse racing venue in Northern Ireland. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as horse racing venue in Northern Ireland. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5302849. Authority coordinates are 54.491, -6.120. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1685 and 1750.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Down Royal Racecourse”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Down Royal Racecourse primary sources, Down Royal Racecourse archive and Down research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Down Royal Racecourse”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Down Royal Racecourse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.