Newmarket

Newmarket Racecourse or, rather, Newmarket Racecourses – the racecourse complex comprises two individual courses, known as the Rowley Mile Course and the July Course – is situated on the outskirts of the town of Newmarket, Suffolk, on the border with Cambridgeshire. Newmarket has long been the headquarters of British Flat racing and is often referred to, colloquially, as ‘Headquarters’.

 

Newmarket Racecourse was founded in 1663, during the reign of King Charles II, shortly after the restoration of the monarchy in England three years previously. Indeed, the King, affectionately known as ‘Rowley’, or ‘Old Rowley’, was instrumental is the establishment and evolution of Newmarket Racecourse and for the transformation of Newmarket from a humble market town to a flourishing centre for horse racing.

 

The Rowley Mile Course, which commemorates the early Royal patronage of Newmarket, is used for racing during the spring and autumn and, annually, on the first weekend in May, plays host to the first two ‘Classic’ races of the season, 1,000 Guineas and the 2,000 Guineas. Both races were established by the Jockey Club, under the stewardship of Sir Charles Bunbury, but the 2,000 Guineas, which is open to thoroughbred three-year-old colts and fillies, was inaugurated in 1809, five years before the 1,000 Guineas, which is open to thoroughbred three-year-old fillies only. Interestingly, Sir Charles Bunbury is also credited with introducing racing to Newmarket during the summer months and the aptly-named July Course, which is used for racing between June and August, features a one-mile straight known as the ‘Bunbury Mile’.

 

Collectively, Newmarket Racecourses host a quarter of the Group One races run annually in Britain. Aside from the first Classics, the Rowley Mile Course hosts four major two-year-old races, the Cheveley Park and Middle Park Stakes in September and the Fillies’ Mile and Dewhurst Stakes in October. The July Course, on the other hand, hosts the July Cup, one of the most prestigious, and valuable, sprint races in the world and the Falmouth Stakes, open to fillies aged three years and upwards and run over the Bunbury Mile.

Aintree

As the home of the Grand National, which annually attracts a global television audience of 600 million, Aintree Racecourse is, arguably, the most instantly recognisable horse racing venue in the world. The Grand National Course consists of 16 idiosyncratic spruce fences, 14 of which are jumped twice during the world famous steeplechase, which is run over a distance of 4 miles, 2 furlongs and 74 yards.

 

The most famous fences on the National Course are Becher’s Brook which, at one point, feature a steep 3’ drop on the landing side, the Canal Turn, which marks the furthest point from the grandstand, alongside the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, and immediately after which horses must negotiate a near 90° turn, and The Chair, which is the penultimate fence on the first circuit and jumped only once, but the highest fence on the course at 5’2”. Other features of Aintree Racecourse, such as the Melling Road, which horses the cross twice during the Grand National, and the famously long, 494-yard run-in, with its equally famous ‘Elbow’ a furlong or so from the winning post, are familiar to viewers worldwide.

 

Of course, the Grand National is not the only race run on the National Course at Aintree. The other races are the Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase and the Topham Chase, which are both run over 2 miles, 5 furlongs and 19 yards at the Grand National Meeting in April and the Grand Sefton Chase, run over the same distance, and the Becher Chase, run over 3 miles, 1 furlong and 188 yards, in December.

 

Aside from the Grand National Course, the Aintree Racecourse complex also includes a traditional, ‘park’ course, known as the Mildmay Course. The Mildmay Course is a left-handed oval, about a mile-and-a-half around, laid out inside the National Course. There are eight traditional birch fences, or six hurdles, to a circuit but, despite remedial work on the bends in the late Eighties, the Mildmay Course remains sharp in character. Notable races on the Mildmay Course include the Betway Bowl, Melling Chase and Aintree Hurdle, all Grade One events run during Grand National Meeting in April.

Ascot

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Ascot Racecourse is situated in the Royal County of Berkshire in South East England, next to Windsor Great Park and less than seven miles from Windsor Castle. The racecourse was the brainchild of the last of the Stuart monarchs, Queen Anne who, in 1711, identified a tract of land on East Cote Heath – near Swinley Bottom, where the Royal Buckhounds were kennelled – as ‘ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch’.

 

The first race, Her Majesty’s Plate, worth 100 guineas, took place on August 11, 1711 and so began a connection between Ascot Racecourse and the Royal Family that has endured until the present day. That said, following the death of Queen Anne in August, 1714, Ascot Racecourse fell out of favour, but returned to prosperity under the auspices of Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland – the erstwhile ‘Butcher of Culloden’, but also a keen sportsman – over four decades later. Landmark dates in the subsequent history of Ascot include the first four-day, Tuesday-to-Friday fixture in 1749, the erection of the first Royal Stand in 1790 and the first Royal Procession in 1825.

 

Nowadays, Ascot Racecourse is famous worldwide as the home of Royal Ascot, which was ‘temporarily’ extended to five days in 2002, to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, but has kept the extra day ever since. Punters are more than eager to search for racing tips when Royal Ascot is around the corner. The Royal Meeting, staged annually in June, features eight Group One races, including the traditional highlight, the Gold Cup, run over two-and-a-half miles on the Thursday, also known as ‘Ladies’ Day’. Other notable fixtures staged, on the Flat, at Ascot Racecourse include the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in July and British Champions Day in mid-October.

 

Of course, Ascot Racecourse is dual-purpose, with National Hunt racing first staged in 1966, following the closure at Hurst Park Racecourse in Surrey four years earlier. Notable National Hunt races include the Grade Two Ascot Hurdle in November, the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle in December and the Grade One Clarence House Chase in January.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum

Hamdan Al Maktoum, or His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum to give him his full title, is the second-eldest brother of the ruling family of Dubai. However, in horse racing circles, he is better known as the owner of Shadwell Racing, whose distinctive silks, of cobalt blue with white epaulettes, have been borne to victory by numerous outstanding thoroughbreds during the last four decades.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum developed an interest in horse racing while studying in Cambridge in the late Sixties, after travelling with his brother, Sheikh Mohammed, to watch Royal Palace win the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1967. He registered his first victory as an owner when the two-year-old Mushref, trained by the late Harry Thomson ‘Tom’ Jones and ridden by Paul Cook, won a minor event at Redcar on July 30, 1980.

 

Four years later, in 1984, Hamdan Al Maktoum purchased the 6,000-acre Shadwell Estate, near Thetford, Norfolk and embarked on an enterprise that would make him one of the foremost owner-breeders of his generation. Shadwell Estate has become the British base for what is one of the most respected bloodstock operations in the world, with major facilities not only in England, but also in Ireland and the United States.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum has won the British Flat Owners Championship four times, in 1990, 1995, 2002, and 2005 and has 12 British Classics to his name. Down the years, some of his truly great horses have included Nashwan, winner of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Coral-Eclipse and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1989, Dayjur, winner of the King’s Stand Stakes, Nunthorpe Stakes, Ladbrokes Sprint Cup and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 1990 and Salsabil, winner of the 1,000 Guineas, Oaks and Irish Derby in the same year.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum is famous for his loyalty and has only ever had four stable jockeys, Willie Carson, Richard Hills, Paul Hanagan and, most recently, Jim Crowley, although he also currently retains the services of Dane O’Neill as his second jockey.

Paul & Clare Rooney

Leading owners Paul and Clare made headlines in late 2018 when, in a letter reported to the Racing Post, they informed trainers not to enter their horses at Cheltenham Racecourse for fear of injury. In 2017, the Rooneys owned Willoughby Court, winner of the Neptune Investment Management Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, but subsequently lost two horses, Starchitect and Melrose Boy, who were both put down after sustaining injuries in races at the Gloucestershire track in December, 2017, and March, 2018, respectively. The couple reversed its decision in February, 2019 but, even so, still had no runners at the Cheltenham Festival in 2019.

 

Nevertheless, since they made their racecourse debut in January, 2012, the Rooneys’ blue and yellow racing colours have become a familiar sight, under both codes, on racecourses the length and breadth of Britain. Despite removing horses from Scottish trainer James Ewart in 2014, and their entire string, over 60 horses, from Cheshire trainer Donald McCain the following year, the couple still owns hundreds of horses in training with dozens of trainers, including Kim Bailey, Gordon Elliott, Harry Fry, Philip Hobbs, Ben Pauling and David Pipe. In 2016, they became seriously involved in Flat racing and recorded their first Group One winner, My Dream Boat, in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

 

Paul Rooney prefers National Hunt racing, while his wife Clare, despite a background in eventing, prefers Flat racing. However, with a fortune estimated at £100 million – a substantial proportion of which has been invested in horse racing, under both codes, in recent seasons – the Rooneys seem certain to remain prominent owners in the discipline(s) on which they choose to concentrate for years to come. In National Hunt racing alone, in just over seven years’ involvement, the Rooneys have increased their total earnings from a respectable £13,000 in 2011/12, to over £600,000 in 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/2018 and 2018/19. Indeed, their most recent Grade One winner in that sphere was If The Cap Fits, trained by Harry Fry, in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree om April 6, 2019.

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