DRIVING towards Newmarket along the Bury Road, any time between dawn and midday, it’s a safe bet that views of the famous Limekilns gallops will be lit up by the sight of gleaming thoroughbreds – the area is home to some 3,500 of the world’s finest equine athletes – working alongside the busy highway. Newmarket has been synonymous with horses ever since James I built a palace there, having discovered the wild heathland out hunting in the early 17th century. However, the town’s real rise to racing prominence followed the restoration of Charles II in 1660.
In 1669 the King, who was nicknamed Old Rowley, built a new palace at Newmarket and from then on moved his entire court there for the duration of the racing season. Charles II’s legacy endures as the Rowley Mile racecourse, which is used during spring and autumn and is the setting for the 1000 and 2000 Guineas Classic races in early May. The Nell Gwyn Stakes, run during the Craven Meeting a month earlier, celebrate one of the monarch’s most enduring
