Jerome Park Steeplechase Game (1885)

Jerome Park Steeplechase is a very early game from McLoughlin Brothers and was produced circa 1885. Jerome Park itself was located in the Fordham section of the Bronx and staged races from the late 1860's to around 1890.

The game; Players decide before the game begins what wagers the game would be played for. Each horse would cost a player some pre-determined amount of money. After casting lots with dice to decide what order each player would move in, each player would roll the dice and then place their horse on the number rolled. Each player could take several horses but the cost to have more than one would increase. Having a second horse in the race would cost the owner one and a half times the fee for the initial horse.

There were bad spots on the board. The #10 spot forced a player to lose his next turn and spots 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 forced players to go back to their previous position on the board. Spots 16,33,48 & 68 were places where hedges were located. If one rolled a number that would place ones horse on any of these numbers one had to pay a fine of the entrance fee for the horse and then return to the place one started this turn from. As one gets closer to the finish line the number of dice one throws decreases so players in the rear have an opportunity to catch up. First player to reach spot number 100 wins and collects whatever wagers were involved in the game. If you rolled more than 100 then, on subsequent turns, you would roll the die and go backwards or forward whatever number you rolled until you reached the 100 square exactly.

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