5th September 2019 - Newmarket Racecourses is proud to announce the launch of The Newmarket Gold Season, an exciting initiative aimed at boosting the profile of the town’s racing, breeding and sales activities during the busy autumn season.
Autumn signals the return to the Rowley Mile and the start of an unparalleled programme of quality racing hosted by Newmarket Racecourses, with fixtures staged across four pulsating and consecutive weekends.
The autumn programme has been dubbed the Gold Season for a number of years but for the first time this world-class racing, along with the renowned Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and ever-popular Henry Cecil Open Weekend, will be jointly promoted and celebrated.
The Newmarket Gold Season embraces not only the racing on the Rowley Mile between Saturday 21st September and Saturday 12th October, with its £4.2 million prize fund and 21 Pattern races, including five Group 1 races, but the entire racing and breeding industry in Newmarket during its most vibrant time of the year.
Starting with the Henry Cecil Open Weekend on 21st and 22nd September and culminating with the conclusion of the October Yearling Sale, across this four-week period the town opens its doors and welcomes visitors from far and wide.
Amy Starkey, Regional Director of The Jockey Club’s East Region, said:
“During the autumn, Newmarket becomes a hub for the international racing and bloodstock world. People are drawn here because of the quality of racing and the calibre of bloodstock at the sales. Through The Newmarket Gold Season we want to celebrate this and increase awareness of our remarkable town and the industry that supports it.
“It is no coincidence that during this period our commercial partners include some of the region’s most valued and influential stud farms, the likes of Darley, Juddmonte and Shadwell, for whom this time of year is critical in terms of results on the racecourse and in the sales ring. The Newmarket Gold Season provides us with a platform on which to tell their stories better than before.”
The autumn run of fixtures at the Rowley Mile have been referred to as the Gold Season for a number of years but work has been undertaken this year to rebrand the period with a focus on the racing from Saturday, 21st September to Saturday, 12th October.
A total of seven days of high-class racing will be staged at the Rowley Mile across the four season-defining weekends, beginning with the Cesarewitch Trial meeting on the opening Saturday. The focus then turns to the three-day Cambridgeshire Meeting on Thursday 26th to Saturday 28th September, featuring the bet365 Cambridgeshire, as well as the Juddmonte-sponsored Cheveley Park and Middle Park Stakes.
On Saturday, 5th October, Europe’s most talented fillies and mares will vie for end-of-season supremacy over a mile in the Group 1 Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes before The Newmarket Gold Season reaches its thrilling conclusion at the Dubai Future Champions Festival.
This two-day meeting, on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th October, features the Group 1 races the bet365 Fillies’ Mile and Darley Dewhurst Stakes, as well as the Dubai Cesarewitch, one of the most eagerly-anticipated handicaps in the Flat calendar.
The launch of The Newmarket Gold Season follows an outstanding season for horses who competed in juvenile Pattern races at the Rowley Mile last autumn. A total of nine three-year-olds who won or placed in such races last year have gone on to win Group 1 races in 2019. They are:
- Too Darn Hot (2018: 1st, Darley Dewhurst Stakes) - Qatar Prix Jean Prat and Qatar Sussex Stakes;
- Advertise (2018: 2nd, Darley Dewhurst Stakes) - Commonwealth Cup and Larc Prix Maurice de Gheest;
- Anthony Van Dyck (2018: 3rd, Darley Dewhurst Stakes) – Investec Derby;
- Iridessa (2018: 1st, bet365 Fillies’ Mile) - Juddmonte Pretty Polly Stakes;
- Hermosa (2018: 2nd, bet365 Fillies’ Mile) – QIPCO 1000 Guineas and Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas;
- Ten Sovereigns (2018: 1st, Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes) – Darley July Cup;
- Persian King (2018: 1st, Masar Godolphin Autumn Stakes) - Emirates Poule d’Essai des Poulains;
- Magna Grecia (2018: 2nd, Masar Godolphin Autumn Stakes) - QIPCO 2000 Guineas;
- Circus Maximus (2018: 3rd, Masar Godolphin Autumn Stakes) – St James’s Palace Stakes.
Amy Starkey, Regional Director of The Jockey Club’s East Region, added:
“At the heart of the racecourse’s autumn fixtures is a two-year-old programme that repeatedly crowns European champions and identifies the stars of the following season.
“Nine individual three-year-old Group 1 winners this season either won or were placed in Newmarket’s autumn pattern races of 2018, including Too Darn Hot, Ten Sovereigns, Advertise and Classic winners Magna Graecia, Hermosa and Anthony Van Dyck.
“In the same week that Too Darn Hot won the Darley Dewhurst last autumn, his full brother was the top lot at Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale, selling for 3.5m guineas. The Newmarket Gold Season gives us the opportunity to work more closely with our partners, such as Tattersalls, and the whole community to promote such stories and celebrate Newmarket’s standing in the international racing and breeding community.”
Yesterday also saw the publication of the initial entries for the Group 2 £100,000 Shadwell Joel Stakes, one of the 21 Pattern Races staged during The Newmarket Gold Season, which is run over a mile of the Rowley Mile Racecourse on Friday 27th September.
The 41 horses engaged include six Group 1 winners and various big names such as Benbatl, a horse whose career bankroll runs to almost £4 million, and King Of Change, runner-up in this year’s Group 1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas over the same course and distance.
