A fact from Potato race appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 June 2018 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that the early 20th-century American rodeo event of mounted potato racing could become violent, with biting being almost the only tactic that was prohibited?
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I don't think there are any sources that explicitly said it was an American thing, although that was the assumption I made. I never found anything about where they were invented specifically. I can have another look through tomorrow though. ♠PMC♠ (talk)07:20, 22 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Djflem, having reviewed the sources and searching through them again, I didn't find any that said explicitly where or when these races were invented. Going by the sources on Newspapers.com, the earliest mention I can find that isn't talking about potatoes as a species is actually in Scotland in 1865, and then one from Australia in 1868. They're only lists of winners and don't go into detail, but from the context of the other events listed around them, I assume they are foot races, not the mounted version, so possibly the footrace version was a British export.
An article from Buffalo in 1871 is the first to explicitly describe what the potato race consists of; by the description it's clearly the on-foot version. Later in 1871 in Pennsylvania there's a mention of a potato race smack in the middle of a list of equestrian events, so I assume that's the horse version but can't say for sure. Most reports I've found of the horse version mention cowboys, rodeo, or some location in America, but there's none that explicitly identify it as an American invention.
"Largely" was kind of a weasel way for me to admit I'm making an assumption/reading between the lines a bit. I don't have any sources that definitely describe one of these events happening post like, 1940ish, but I also don't have any sources that say they're dead for sure. I don't mind to take it out. ♠PMC♠ (talk)21:29, 16 August 2018 (UTC)Reply
I pulled out "largely" but left the rest; I feel like if they were still happening anywhere in some kind of organized fashion, I'd have found a source past 1930. I was very, very thorough. ♠PMC♠ (talk)06:38, 17 August 2018 (UTC)Reply
