The Free Handicap race in the modern sense was first run in 1929, though there had been seven furlong and one mile handicaps for three-year-olds at least back to 1907.
Indeed, there were Free Handicaps at York and Doncaster as far back as 1803 and 1804, not long after the concept of handicap races began. “Free” tended to mean open to any horse. It was not free to enter! It was a generic term used at lots of courses. A local handicapper would set the weights once he received entries. By 1860 Newmarket had several free handicaps, including one at the Craven meeting, but not The Free Handicap.
By then “the Free Handicap” was also a term for the ranking of the hundred or so best two-year-olds at the end of each season, expressed from nine stone seven downward. Ratings did not distinguish between five furlong speedsters and those that had stayed six or seven.
In 1909 Edward VII’s Derby winner Minoru won a Free Handicap at Newmarket at the end of its three-year-old season.
NEWMARKET
A new race at Newmarket’s Craven meeting was staged whereby owners in that top hundred could choose to run their horses by entering at a certain cost, which would form the prize money fund. Even in 1928, when the entry fee was £100, owners were said to be glum about running solely for their own money.
Amongst the notable winners once the race was formally named The Free Handicap, Mid Day Sun (1937) went on to win the Derby; Quorum (1957) was the dam of Red Rum; Petite Etoile (1959) was rated a stone below the best colts but they chose to miss the Free Handicap. She was top weight and won it and the 1,000 Guineas a few weeks later. She was one of the top fillies that year and in the next two seasons, winning 14 of her 19 races in all. Moorestyle (1980) was a champion sprinter.
The prefix “European” was added to the name in 1981, but the race steadily declined in importance afterwards, as the best three-year-olds early in the season habitually competed in conditions races.
2022 was the last time it was run. The next year it was replaced by a 0-80 handicap.
NEWCASTLE
There also used to be a Northern Free Handicap at Manchester, and later at Newcastle at Easter weekend. After 1984 that particular seven furlong race for three-year-olds lost its freedom and became the plain Northern Handicap.