Joint release from Newmarket Racecourses and Jockey Club Estates.

As racing moves across from the Rowley Mile to the July Course for July and August, Newmarket Racecourses are keen to ensure the town’s residents are fully aware of measures in place that will affect those who use the areas around the course for their own exercise.

In order to continue to stage racing safely and to meet the criteria agreed with government for racing “behind closed doors”, on Newmarket racedays the public will not be able to access the July Course car parks or the July Course side of Devil’s Dyke. The designated public footpath along the Devil’s Dyke will remain open for use, as will the Heath and Training Grounds on the Rowley Mile side.

Access will be permitted from 7.30pm, an hour after the final race on each raceday.

The move across to Newmarket’s July Course follows ten days of racing hosted safely on the Rowley Mile in June behind closed doors. During July, the July Festival will take place on Thursday 9th, Friday 10th and Saturday 11th followed by two further days of racing that month, and five days in August. The public are not expected to be permitted to attend any of these racedays, in line with current government guidance.

Amy Starkey, who runs Newmarket Racecourses as East Regional Director for Jockey Club Racecourses, said: “We’ve really appreciated the patience and support of the local community since we resumed racing behind closed doors at the Rowley Mile. Now that we’ve moved away from racing on that course, we’re pleased that Newmarket residents can return to making use of the Heath for exercise including on what is known as ‘Racecourse Side’, off the Hamilton Road. They can, of course also continue to exercise from 1pm on the east side of town in areas such as Warren Hill, Side Hill or Waterhall.

“Racing has been able to resume through a combination of training, testing, and accrediting all those individuals who need to be on or close to the site on a raceday. Consequently, the Jockey Club-owned land surrounding the racecourse that is usually open to the public needs to be controlled carefully to ensure only those who are accredited have access, in order to protect our licence to race safely.

“Having racing back at Newmarket benefits not only the local economy but also the thousands of people in the region whose livelihoods depend on the racing and breeding industry. We are already grateful to Newmarket residents for their patience and understanding so far and hope we can rely on their continued co-operation as we deliver our next round of fixtures this summer.”

The full programme of racedays taking place on the July Course in 2020 are:
Thursday 9 July
Friday 10 July
Saturday 11 July
Friday 24 July
Saturday 25 July
Saturday 1 August
Saturday 8 August
Saturday 15 August
Friday 28 August
Saturday 29 August