Tally-Ho! Touring Britain's Horse-racing Spots

Even since horse-loving King James I visited in 1605, Newmarket, England, has been the seat of Britain's horse-racing industry. Dozens of stud farms and training stables dot the flat heaths, along with the Newmarket Racetrack, the National Horseracing Museum, saddlers' workshops, and other racing-related attractions.

Organized tours of the area didn't come about until last summer, however, when Newmarket Thoroughbred Tours started. The firm offers half-day to four-day tours with a variety of itineraries, from spending a day at the racetrack to a weekend working with a trainer.

"We certainly seem to have found a gap in the market which needed filling," says tour founder Anna Ludlow. Most of her customers have an interest in horses but no entree into the world behind the past-ran-rail fences and lush green paddocks.

"We have a few casual sightseers, but most of our tours are individual and designed around very small groups," says Ludlow.

"We try to show what goes into producing the racehorse as seen on the race course." A one-day tour might start with a visit to a stud farm, then on to transit yards to watch yearlings being broken, the sales paddock, and training areas.

There's a tour of the new British Racing School, Which trains stable staff and apprentices, and of the Equine Resaerach Station, with its equine swimming pool.

Longer tours include two afternoons at the Members Lunching Room of the Newmarket Racetrack. The racing weekend even allows competent riders to join the morning gallops.

The daylong tours cost about $45, while the weekend and four-day tours cost from $430-$550.

Ludlow says the year is shaping up nicely.
"We've been appointed the sole booking agents for the National Stud, which is opening its doors to the public from March of this year. In the past, it's been open in just August and September." That's led to a fair number of early bookings.

In addition, Ludlow plans to organize a group tour out of Lexington, Kentucky, for buyers at England's autumn yearling sales. It will include airfare, hotels, and transportation, even "of the horses purchased to get them back to the States."
-0-