The William The Lion Handicap used to be Scotland’s longest flat race, run over two and a half miles at Lanark.
William the Lion was the King of Scotland from 1165-1214. A lion is on his personal standard and Scotland is “the lion of the north”, but William didn’t live up to his stirring name and emblem.
Like many other Scottish monarchs wanting to acquire parts of England, William raided its northern counties, raping and pillaging. One day he saw a group of knights approaching him through the mist and wrongly thought they were his supporters. But it was the English, who captured him and compelled him to swear a humiliating allegiance to the English throne. The northern towns were quickly regained and Scottish towns as far as Edinburgh were laid waste in retaliation.
After fifteen years in captivity, relationships between the two nations improved and William was released. Another half-baked attempt to conquer Northumberland ensued, but he was repulsed and gave it up as a bad job. According to one historian, “he was a futile warrior at best”.
Legend has it that circa 1160 William supplied a silver bell as a prize for a race at Lanark, where he had a castle; bells were given as prizes in those far-off days. However, modern research determined that the object now known as the Lanark Silver Bell was probably made in 1617.
Despite its ancient origins, the race was first run as recently as 1946. When Lanark closed in 1977 the race moved to Ayr, where it was staged from 1979-91 as part of a long weekend of racing in mid-July; Friday, Saturday and Monday.
The Friday fixture disappeared in 1992 and so did the race title – until 2017, when it was resurrected at Hamilton in August, over six furlongs instead of twenty as of yore. Admittedly a two and a half mile race at Hamilton would be difficult, as it would entail making the loop rounder and going round it two or three times. There was no William of Lion in 2024, though.
Hamilton had already acquired the Lanark Silver Bell race title in 2008. To their credit, by 2021 its value had almost tripled to £100,000 and it was upgraded to a Heritage Handicap.