🏇 THE JULY COURSE: WHERE I FELL IN LOVE WITH RACING ALL OVER AGAIN
Some racecourses you visit. The July Course at Newmarket gets under your skin.
I’ve been fortunate enough to visit racecourses all over Britain during the last 40 years. Epsom, Sandown, Goodwood, Ascot, Kempton, Lingfield. Seven trips to Paris for the Arc. I thought I’d seen what this sport had to offer.
Then my friend Neil took me to the July Course at Newmarket in the early nineties. And nothing was ever quite the same again.
🌳 A DIFFERENT KIND OF RACECOURSE
The moment you walk through the gates at the July Course you understand that this isn’t just another race meeting.
The thatched roofs. The little bars tucked away beneath the trees. Families settled on the grass with a drink in the sunshine. The relaxed, unhurried atmosphere of a proper English summer’s afternoon. It feels less like a racecourse and more like a garden party that just happens to have some of the finest racehorses in Europe thundering past.
It’s completely different to the Rowley Mile ,Newmarket’s other track, rightly famous as the Home of Racing. Both courses are special. But while the Rowley Mile has grandeur and history, the July Course has warmth. Character. A feeling that racing here belongs to everyone who turns up, not just the people in the hospitality boxes.
I fell in love with it immediately.
🎩 THE MAN IN THE STAND
Neil and I had settled into our seats when he nudged me.
“Do you know who’s sitting next to you?”
I looked across and shrugged.
“It’s Luca Cumani.”
I couldn’t quite believe it. Here was one of Britain’s most respected and successful trainers ,a man who had trained two Epsom Derby winners, whose stable had produced champions across five continents, whose daughter Francesca would go on to become one of racing’s most recognisable television presenters ,sitting quietly in the stand, enjoying an afternoon’s racing like everyone else. No fuss. No entourage. Just another man who loved the sport.
That’s Newmarket for you. Where else in the world could that happen so naturally?
🏆 WATCHING A LEGEND IN HIS FINAL SEASON
That same visit gave me a memory I’ve carried ever since.
The Bunbury Cup , run on the final day of the July Festival over seven furlongs , was won by En Attendant, ridden by Lester Piggott. What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was just how significant that moment was. Piggott’s last winner in Britain came in October 1994 at Haydock. The 1994 Bunbury Cup was one of his very final rides on British soil.
Watching Piggott ride was like watching a master craftsman at work. Nothing looked hurried. Nothing looked forced. He seemed to move in a slightly different time to everyone else on the track , unhurried, precise, always exactly where he needed to be. His style was unique, unmistakeable, and completely his own.
I didn’t know that afternoon that I was watching one of the final chapters of the greatest jockey career British racing has ever seen. Looking back, I’m glad I was there.
🍺 THE FINISHING TOUCHES
No trip to Newmarket was ever complete without a visit to the White Hart for a drink on the way home. And there was another tradition I kept without fail , calling into the famous local butcher for Newmarket sausages before leaving town.
Years later I smiled when I spotted a horse called Newmarket Sausage in the racecards. It wasn’t running that memorable day but it reminded me how racing always finds little ways of making you smile when you least expect it.
📅 WHY THIS MATTERS NOW
As the July Festival gets underway this week the headlines will be full of market movers, betting gambles, and analysis of the feature races. All of that matters , and we’ll be covering it here on Pro Racing Edge.
But the biggest lesson I took from that afternoon at Newmarket wasn’t about backing favourites or finding value in the market. It was something simpler and more lasting.
Pay attention. Watch the horses in the paddock. Listen to the experienced racegoers around you. Observe the trainers. Look beyond the obvious. The sport has layers that most people never see because they’re too busy looking at the price rather than the horse.
After more than 40 years in racing one thing has never changed. The winners everyone is talking about are yesterday’s news. The value everyone has missed is where tomorrow’s profit lies.
That’s the edge I’ve always looked for. And every July, when the Festival comes around, my mind drifts back to a warm afternoon at Newmarket , a quiet man in the stand, a legendary jockey in his final season, and a racecourse unlike any other.
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