Review:

Despite the maraschino liqueur, this Martini-style cocktail is dry and punchy.

Variant:

Turf Club - 1884, George Winter
Turf Club - 1895, George Kappeler
Turf Club - 1935, Albert Stevens Crockett
Turf Club – 1939, Charles H. Baker
Surf & Turf
Artillery

History:

Harry Johnson, tellingly, doesn't list the Turf cocktail in the 1882 first edition or the 1888 second edition of his Bartenders' Manual but does include it as the last drink in his revised 1900 New and Improved edition. Johnson reflects on changing tastes and fashions by calling for Plymouth gin rather than old tom gin in his turn-of-the-century recipe.

Turf Cocktail.
(Use a large bar glass.)
¾ full of shave ice;
2 or 3 dashes of orange bitters;
2 or 3 dashes of maraschino;
2 dashes of absinthe;
½ wine glass of French vermouth;
½ wine glass of Plymouth gin;
Stir up well with a spoon, strain into a cocktail glass, putting in a medium size olive; and serve.

Harry Johnson, 1900

Published 22 years later, Robert Vermeire's 1922 Cocktails: How to Mix Them, again repeats the Harry Johnson formula, also crediting Johnson as being the drink's creator.

Turf Cocktail
Fill the bar glass half full of broken ice and add:

2 dashes of Orange Bitters.
2 dashes of Maraschino.
2 dashes of Absinthe.
1/4 gill of Plymouth Gin.
1/4 gill of French Vermouth.

Stir up well, strain into a cocktail-glass, add olive.

Vermeire, 1922

Sadly, I don't own one of the early editions of Harry McElhone's ABC of Mixing Cocktails, but thanks to Dave Wondrich on esquire.com we know that McElhone's 1922 edition also contains a version of the Turf Club that's strikingly similar to Johnson's recipe above.

Turf Club Cocktail
1½ oz Plymouth gin
1½ oz Dry vermouth
2 dashes Maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Orange bitters
2 dashes Absinthe
Garnished with an olive.

McElhone's, 1922

In his 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book, Harry Craddock also repeats Harry Johnson's 1900 recipe.

Nutrition:

One serving of Turf Club (1900, Harry Johnson) contains 171 calories