<<My question then and now is why do so many cathedrals have race courses nearby and the converse, why have so many race courses established themselves close to cathedrals? Can anyone help with this puzzle of mine?>> My guess would be (and it's just a guess) that race courses were usually set up in county towns and other similar places, because those were places where people, especially the horse-owning and -racing classes, tended to gather (for all sorts of reasons, administrative, legal, commercial, social) - and most cathedral cities were exactly that kind of place. Matt Tompkins