Essential Hotels > England > Suffolk > Newmarket

The town of Newmarket in Suffolk is synonymous with the horseracing, and not only because of horseracing itself, but also the training of race horses and the breeding of race horses. Newmarket’s past, present, and most likely future, is inextricably bound up with the sport, with something like one-third of the town’s jobs associated with racing and virtually all of its tourism linked to the animals.

Racing takes place throughout the year, with the July Festival among the highlights; there are two courses, namely the Newmarket Racecourse and the July Course. Newmarket is home to the UK’s largest horse racing training centre which is the reason there are more than 2,500 horses and 70 trainers stationed in the small Suffolk town. The training grounds span 2,500 acres, with 50 miles of practice turf and 14 tracks available for trial and testing, and so it is hardly surprising that famous horse racing names such as Frankie Dettori and trainer Sir Michael Stoute live there.

Newmarket takes up its position in an enclave of Suffolk that stretches out into Cambridgeshire. This puts it a short distance from the lovely city of Cambridge as well as a day trip away from the likes of Ely and Bury St Edmunds. Further, the town is around 65 miles to the north of London, a journey that takes an hour or so on the train. Other features of the settlement that aren’t associated with horse racing include the Newmarket sausage, whose recipe has remained the same since 1884, and the Palace House, a residence built for King Charles II during his reign.

Dating back to the beginning of the 13th century, Newmarket developed something of a royal heritage in later years. In the 17th century King James I built the first grandstand on Newmarket Heath while Charles I lived in the town in the lead up to the Civil War.

It was Charles II who established himself further however, ordering the building of the Palace House which still stands today. His most important feat though was his advancement of horse racing in Newmarket. After the first recorded race in Britain in 1622 Charles II introduced the 1665 Act of Parliament which established the first permanent race run in Britain, known as the Town Plate, a race that remains the oldest surviving race in the country. Over the years many races have taken place on the town’s courses, even during the First and Second World Wars, proving further Newmarket’s firmly held position at the top of world horseracing.