Horse racing in the Kelso area is recorded to have taken place sporadically since 1734 at Caverton Edge, five miles from the town; from 1760 meetings were held there regularly.

The meetings at Kelso and Edinburgh were the only ones listed for Scotland in the first annual edition of Weatherby's Racing Calendar in 1773.

The annual October meeting for 1793 was extended to six consecutive days and included the staging by the Caledonian Hunt of a prestigious King's Plate race of 100 guineas.

In 1822, The Sporting Magazine reported that the Duke of Roxburghe had prepared land at Berry Moss (now Berrymoss) for a horse racing course.

[3] The foundation stone of the stand at the current racetrack at Berrymoss was laid on the 12 July 1822 and the first fixture took place on 16 April 1823.

The course was extended over fields of the Hendershyde Park Estate to accommodate three of the steeplechase fences; hurdle races were run over the original track.

[10] In 2018–19, Kelso became the first racecourse in Scotland to use artificial lighting to encourage the growth of grass on the course during the Winter months.

The building, incorporating a private viewing area for the races' patron the Duke of Roxburghe, remains largely unchanged since its construction.

[13] The longest established race still run at Kelso is a steeplechase for the Buccleuch Cup, founded in 1885 for maiden hunters.

[18] The golf course partially laid out within the race course was originally a nine-hole course designed by Ben Sayers, then extended and redesigned by James Braid in 1930, and made into 18 holes in 1980.