The Land of Burns is an area of southwest Scotland synonymous with the life and work of Scotland’s greatest poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796). He was born in the Scottish lowlands and his poems evoked the southwest of the country so well that an early form of literary tourism quickly developed. An early death rarely does an artist’s reputation any harm and as early as 1818 Keats was calling the area of Dumfriesshire and Ayrshire in southwest Scotland “Burns country” and by 1821 the phrase “Land of Burns” was in use – and still is today. In 1840 a book of that name was published containing a series of images complementing Burns’ written work, depicting the romantic rural landscapes that he wrote about, helping to propagate tourism ever since.
As far as I can tell a Land of Burns Plate was first run at Ayr in 1875, but it’s possible there earlier races of that name. It moved between the Western Meeting and Ayr’s other midsummer fixtures until 1968. It vanished from the programme the following year, perhaps due to encroaching sponsorship, only to be revived in July 1970 as part of a programme of new races to boost the sport in Scotland and the north. Then it was over 1m5f. Since then it succumbed to the creeping trend of doing away with long contests, first reduced to a mile and later to five furlongs, with the “Of” mutating to a more picturesque “O’” and sometimes omitting “Land Of” altogether.
The Land O’Burns Stakes fizzled out in 1991, but resumed as a Listed race in 2004, confined to fillies and mares and run in June. 2016 saw a notable winner in the form of Marsha, who went on to win the Prix de l’Abbaye in the autumn and the Nunthorpe the following year.
BURNS
There have been countless other races at Ayr named “Burns”, as in the poet– claimers, maidens, handicaps, flat and jumps – but none at the time of writing.