Businesses in Kelso tend to be deep-rooted, the pace of change in Borders commerce being as languorous as the slow waters of the River Tweed flowing past John Hogarth’s Mill.

One of the oldest, John Hogarth Ltd, traces its roots back to the year 1118 when the mill was established to provide flour for Kelso’s Abbey. Other businesses evolved around the abbey and, by the middle of 18th Century, Kelso’s well-proportioned town square started to take shape. The Cross Keys Inn, where many racegoers will stay, was established in 1760 and gained it’s ornate Italianate frontage in 1879.

Scotland’s first purpose-built racecourse was laid out on the Berrymoss (a drained bog on the periphery of the town) in 1823, complete with a fancy new Georgian grandstand designed by renowned York-based engineer John Carr.

Nowadays, many visitors to the racecourse will have an account with a business based a short walk from the square at 25 Woodmarket Street. And while you might not associate the bright red branding with an old established business, Ladbrokes is frequently described as Britain’s oldest operating firm of bookmakers.

Founded in 1881 by Messrs. Schwind and Pennington in 1886, the company originally acted as commission agents for horses trained at Ladbroke Hall in Warwickshire – placing bets on behalf of wealthy racehorse owners and their associates. According to a quick search on Wikipedia, the Ladbrokes name was adopted in 1902 when Arthur Bendir joined the partnership and operations moved to London – where the clientele was drawn from the aristocracy and upper classes as they frequented London’s gentlemen’s clubs in the area around St James’s.

In 1919 Ladbrokes recruited Helen Vernet to become the first woman licensed to take bets on a racecourse. Long before betting became legal off the racecourse, Ms Vernet had already attracted the attention of racing’s authorities having been “warned off” (banned from attending the races) for collecting bets from female friends and acquaintances and bringing them to the racecourse to be placed.

This enlightened approach to women’s suffrage was diametrically opposed to that shown by many of her contemporaries, including a local group of militants who tried unsuccessfully to light a fire beneath Kelso’s Grandstand in 1913.

As befits a bookmaker with such a progressive history, Ladbrokes recently agreed to sponsor the Go North Weekend – a joint initiative between the racecourses at Musselburgh, Kelso and Carlisle, aimed at providing aspirational targets for racehorse owners and trainers in the north of Britain. Ten series of races, each with multiple qualifiers staged throughout the year, will reach their conclusion with race-finals this weekend.

The most valuable of the Ladbrokes Go North Series Finals, staged at Kelso on Saturday, is the £100,000 Herring Queen Mares Novices Handicap Hurdle. Our selection, Northern Air, can be backed at 5/1 (odds advertised on Friday) with Britain’s oldest operating bookmaker who also happens to have a branch less than one mile from the racecourse at 25 Woodmarket Street.