Introduction
Spring at Newmarket means world class racing on the NatWest Rowley Mile, the "Course of Champions", during April and May. Nine racedays will be run on the most historic stretch of turf in the entire world of sport, where equine champions have been crowned for centuries.
The glittering feature is the StanJamesUK Guineas Festival on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th May 2008, when the eyes of the international racing world will be firmly focused on the Home of Racing for the first two classic races of the British flat racing season - the StanJamesUK 2000 Guineas and the StanJamesUK 1000 Guineas.
In 2008 we will be celebrating the 200th running if The StanJamesUK 2000 Guineas on Saturday 3rd May.
Reputations will be on the line as the cream of Europe's three-year-old colts and fillies stake their claim to greatness. With a host of other top races as well over the two days, the StanJamesUK Guineas Festival is the biggest spring flat racing fixture in Europe.
The spring season starts with the Craven Meeting on Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th April, the first big meeting of the flat season in Britain, featuring a host of trials for the classics that lie ahead. The two-day format introduced in 2007, features the best 14 races retained from the previous three day format.
In May the NatWest Rowley Mile will host a record number of fixtures - 7 in all - including racing on three of the four weekends.
The spring season ends with a three-day fixture on Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th May, the latter being Countryside Family Fun Day, when quality racing on the track combines with entertainment for all the family based around countryside activities.
The modern and imposing NatWest Rowley Mile boasts world class facilities as well as world class racing. Today’s course is identified by the magnificent Millennium Grandstand, opened by the Queen in 2000. It dominates the skyline as you approach the course, a far cry from the facilities that would have existed in the 17th century when Charles II used to watch the races from the famous Bushes, which still exist today about a furlong and a half from the winning post.
Everyone is welcome at the NatWest Rowley Mile and we hope that you will have the opportunity to come here this spring to enjoy the most authenic racing experience in the world and sample the magic of the Home of Horseracing. In racing, where obsession knows no boundaries, Newmarket is a breed apart.
Experience Newmarket
Want to know more about horseracing's most historic time?