DIARY – VISIT TO NEWMARKET
THE NATIONAL STUD AND PALACE HOUSE NATIONAL
HERITAGE CENTRE FOR HORSERACING AND SPORTING ART
TUESDAY 24 JULY 2018
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Beautiful filly foal at the National Stud |
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Useful Links: The National Stud: https://www.nationalstud.co.uk/ Palace House National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and
Sporting Art: |
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My Scottish friend and regular Aintree Festival companion,
Sandra, had arranged to stay with her friend in Bedford for a few days. Sandra had suggested we visit Newmarket’s
Palace House National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art whilst
she was in the locality and, latterly, I’d mooted the idea of paying a visit
to the National Stud on the same day; thus ‘killing two birds with one stone’ so to speak! The two most suitable days for the Suffolk trip
were a Monday or a Tuesday … so, having discovered the National Stud was open
for tours on both a Monday and Tuesday during the school holidays, although
not on these two days of the week during term-time, I pre-booked two tickets
online via Discover Newmarket for Tuesday 24 July. The tour has to be pre-booked and cost £11 per
ticket. The weather had been unseasonably warm and dry,
even for July, with no rain spotted in my home City for around one
month. In fact the heat-wave had begun
in late June, causing wildfires in parts of the UK, along with hosepipe bans. It was almost 1976 all over again! A number of plants in my garden had died
through lack of rain – a box tree, a rhododendron and a Pieris
Forest Flame which had been in the garden for many years. The two water-butts had also run dry; the
contents having been used to water a number of plants which don’t like
tap-water. The lawn was so sunburnt
that it crunched underfoot; never mind, grass always springs back to life
once rain arrives. The day before our visit to Suffolk, the highest
temperature of the summer so far – 33 degrees – had been recorded in the
county. Summer-themed clothing would
be the order of the day – I chose my neon blue jeggings,
a flower-patterned Per Una shirt with
cream-coloured background and deep pink/coral-coloured roses, also with green
and beige flowers/foliage. I wore a
soft coral-coloured camisole vest underneath.
I also put on a grey Per Una long-line
knitted waistcoat; it was very thin fabric.
I wore my brown Footglove
ankle boots for the stud visit and my grey Hotter Aura shoes for the
remainder of the afternoon. I also
wore a pair of M&S alpaca design socks!
My handbag was a Defea design ‘Graphic print’ Kipling one in blue/black/gold/white. I set my alarm for 05:30 on Tuesday morning but,
in the event, woke at 05:10. Having
showered, washed and dried my hair and applied minimal makeup, I ate a
breakfast of Weetabix and fruit. I had arranged to
meet Sandra outside Bedford East Midlands/Thameslink
station at around 09:00, so I cadged a lift to the St Albans City station,
arriving there just after 08:00. The Thameslink service
had been severely affected since a new timetable was introduced in May
2018. In fact the current timetable
was a revision of a revised timetable.
In other words, the third attempt at a workable one. There are three northbound trains between 07:54
and 08:02, although the last of these terminates at Luton. The next train to Bedford departs at
08:25! Which means there are no
northbound trains from the City station at the peak of the rush-hour for a
period of 23 minutes, and it’s an even longer wait if you wish to travel to
the neighbouring town of Harpenden … what is that all about? Having bought a return ticket, which being during
peak hours cost £23.90, I caught the 8:25 train
calling at Luton Airport Parkway, Luton, Flitwick
and Bedford. There are always plenty
of seats on the northbound train service, unlike the cramped conditions on
the southbound ones to London during the rush-hour. Having paused at Luton station, I sent a text
message to Sandra to say I expected to arrive at 09:00. It took three attempts; the final one after
I’d turned the phone off and on again.
Sandra later told me she’d received the message twice. The train passed through a tunnel between Flitwick (pronounced with a silent ‘w’) and Bedford. Flitwick station is the drop-off point for visitors to Center Parcs Woburn
Forest. Closer to Bedford there were a
number of flooded ‘workings’; I
presume these were former brick pits, the town being famous for the
manufacture of building bricks. The
two huge green Cardington airship hangars were also visible. The train pulled into the station, and I walked
back along the platform to reach the footbridge which would lead me to the
ticket-hall and station entrance. New
passengers boarded the train, it was a quick turnaround to head back to
London and beyond – Thameslink trains terminate at
Brighton, Gatwick Airport, Littlehampton, East Grinstead, Orpington, Rainham in Kent; also a circuit passing through
Sutton. I’d love to go to
Littlehampton for the day … if I could be sure of a return train being
available with the current timetable cancellations and other issues, such as
point failures and trees falling onto overhead cables! I headed through the turnstiles and
ticket-hall. There was a queue all the
way out of the door; families waiting to buy tickets ahead of their journey –
after all it was the school holidays.
I walked along to a space between the taxi rank and private vehicles,
adjacent to the motorcycle/bicycle park.
Sandra arrived and drove around the perimeter route in order to pick
me up. We took a right out of the station onto
Ashburnham Road, then a left and a right, enabling us to stay on the
A5141. Latterly it crossed the Great
Ouse River and at the subsequent T-junction we turned left. We entered a one-way system shortly
afterwards, having waited at a red-light for a lady to cross the road. At the next T-junction we turned right, in
order to head down St John’s Street; this was also one-way. Having reached a roundabout we turned left
then, at the following one, right to continue southbound along Cardington
Road. We passed Tesco’s, and
subsequently travelled alongside the Great Ouse. Finally we arrived at the roundabout beneath the
A421, took the slip-road onto said dual carriageway and continued until we
reached the A1; this was the Black Cat roundabout, denoted by a large black
metal cat sited on the traffic island.
This small section of the route was familiar territory from my days,
back in 2008 and 2009, of travelling to and from Huntingdon and Market Rasen racecourses. Having travelled a short distance on the
northbound carriageway, at Wyboston we took a
slip-road to the left, which swung right latterly to take us over the A1 and,
at the next roundabout a right-hand turn took us onto the A428 as it skirted Eaton
Socon and St Neots. We continued upon this A-road as it wended
its way through the countryside,
latterly forming the
beginning of the Cambridge northern bypass.
Not long afterwards we entered a contra-flow
section. There was a very strange
pillared construction over the eastbound carriageway; it resembled a Greek
temple! I presume this is part of the
new Girton interchange; the A14 heads in from the
northwest and the M11 from the south.
In fact the A428 transforms into the A14 at this point, with the
latter designated road now acting as the Cambridge northern bypass. As we wanted to travel into Newmarket, we
subsequently headed off onto the A1303, rather than continue along the bypass
that heads around the northern perimeter of the Suffolk town. Having passed the Equine Hospital on the
right, and an entrance leading to racecourse car parks on the left, we
encountered a large roundabout with a statue of a rearing horse being held by
a stable-lad. We took the first exit
and, shortly afterwards to the left of the road, encountered tall metal
gates; these opened automatically to allow admittance. Just beyond this gateway was the July
Course’s Gate 1. We headed down the driveway, talking the
right-hand fork in order to enter the car park. The car in front of us had taken the left-hand
option, in order to park in the disabled area outside the Wavertree’s Coffee
Shop. There were three or four
vehicles already parked and, having sorted out our footwear and bags, we
headed through a gap in the hedge. The first building we encountered was the Weatherby’s pavilion; this was the studio of local artist
Chris Winch. The pavilion was adjacent
to Wavertree’s Coffee and Gift Shop. We
took a brief look around the shop area before, eventually, purchasing hot
drinks; Sandra bought a hot chocolate and I bought a large mocha. Whilst waiting for our drinks, the lady who
would take us on the Stud tour arrived and began ticking off the attendees’
names from her list. We were ready to go at 11:15; at which point we
went to board the small bus which was parked outside. I think there were eight of us on the
tour. The guide explained that the
buildings opposite were the quarantine area for newly arrived mares. We headed past a small housing area to our
left, before we turned right to head down a driveway situated between
race-day car parking areas. At the far end we passed through a line of trees,
before turning left. Our guide
explained that the strip of grass to our right is used once a year for the
Newmarket Town Plate, which was first run in 1666, and takes place at the end
of the summer, when the July Course is no longer in use. It is run over a distance longer than the
Grand National. We had to wait for two
or three vehicles to pass by on the narrow driveway. The roadway subsequently crossed the ‘course’; she explained that this was
covered with turf whilst the race was in progress. This ‘third
racecourse’, which is known as the Round Course, bears right further
along, before a sharp right turn adjacent to the Newmarket bypass road. This is where it joins the July and Rowley
Mile courses, with the amateur race following the course of the former all
the way to the winning post. The
business end of the National Stud lies within this Round Course circuit. We headed down a tree-lined driveway to reach the
Stallions area. With the mating season
over for this year, the current stallions had been turned out in their
individual paddocks. There were just
three stallions on show today – the grey Gregorian, bay Marcel and bay Aclaim. In July
2018 there were five standing at the Stud in total, with Spill The Beans and
Time Test currently in quarantine ahead of a journey to Australia and New
Zealand respectively, to service Southern Hemisphere mares during their
spring season. Spill The Beans’ home stud is in Australia and he
‘reversed shuttled’ to Newmarket
for our mating season; whereas The
National Stud is Time Test’s home and he would be heading off for a ‘working holiday’ in New Zealand! Having parked up beneath a tree, we alighted to
take a closer look at the three stallions.
Being a hot day and nearing mid-day too, the horses were all standing
in the shade within their individual paddocks. Gregorian, who had initially been hiding in
the field-shelter, did appear but remained close to it. Aclaim
stayed in the shade too, to the side of his enclosure. Marcel was ‘hiding’ behind wooden boarding at the corner of his paddock. Although we weren’t allowed to touch them
regardless, being ‘nippy’
stallions, none were curious enough to move from the shade; I don’t blame
them really! We headed back via the statue of Mill Reef; the
1971 Derby winner stood at the Stud for many years, having recovered from a
broken leg sustained on the gallops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Reef We walked across to take a look in one of the stallion
boxes; the occupier’s pedigree is displayed on the upper section of the
stable door. We also took a look
inside the mating barn. The mares came
in via the far entrance, the stallions from the boxes side. The foal at foot is not separated from the
mare during the mating, but held within the barn. An area of the barn was built-up … just in
case the thoroughbred stallion is too short to mount a big mare! Our guide also explained the role of the ‘Teaser’; however, the teaser isn’t
totally frustrated as he does get to mate with a variety of ponies, etc! Finally, we headed across to see the graves of
former stallion inmates. These
included Never Say Die (Derby winner in 1954), who I saw when I visited the
Stud in the early 70’s. Also Tudor
Melody (champion 2-year-old in 1958) – I remember him from my previous visit
too. There were also headstones for
Mill Reef, Silver Patriarch, Royal Palace, Relkino,
Moorestyle and Suave Dancer. Our guide explained that the latter died
young, having been struck by lightning.
Since the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, it has
been illegal to bury horses; the disease affects cloven-hoofed animals, but
horses can be carriers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Die_(horse) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Patriarch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace_(horse) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relkino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorestyle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suave_Dancer We boarded the coach once more and headed around
via the foaling box area; there were four mares in a nearby paddock –
evidently they were in-foal Southern Hemisphere visitors, who would be mated
with local stallions once their foals were on the ground. Evidently a number would be paying a visit
to Frankel. The Stud boards transient
mares; it’s a hotel when other studs don’t provide accommodation for visiting
mares. Our guide explained that foals are usually born
at night, when it is less likely for predators to find a foal before it’s
managed to gain its feet. The Stud
doesn’t have a resident vet, as the Equine Hospital is just a five-minute
drive away. We were seeking the mares with foals, and we
found two adjacent paddocks thereof.
Being a hot day, a number of the foals were lying down and, initially,
the mares and foals seemed disinterested.
We headed up to a third paddock, but the horses were too far
away. Eventually, a lovely bay mare
came across to the fence of the middle paddock, along with her beautiful
filly foal. Members of our group headed down the track-way
between the paddocks and further mares and foals came over to see us. The four mares and their foals in the
adjacent field also walked over to the fence.
There was a grey mare and brownish foal. The guide explained that, often, foals
registered as brown turned out to be grey in the end! The grey mare and foal were a hit with our
group, but one of the mares was a little grumpy; her foal was a Frankel colt! The foals were in mixed groups currently but, as
soon as they are weaned, the colts and fillies would go their separate ways
and live in same sex groups; colts become ‘frisky’ very young! Having got back into the coach once more, we were
driven back to the area in front of the Café.
On the way, we passed three weaned foals in a paddock, along with a
number of mares in a field close to the racecourse parking area. Having arrived back, we visited the café
once more, the gift shop in particular.
Sandra bought a fridge magnet; I purchased a canvas shopping bag with
National Stud printed on the side, always useful to store balls of wool in! There was food available to purchase at the Café’
but we intended to travel into Newmarket to visit the Palace House National
Heritage Centre for Horseracing & Sporting Art. Being late July, wasps were now buzzing
around; one took a liking to us as we sorted out our bags and changed into
more comfortable shoes. I hate wasps,
but I didn’t scream; I becoming more chilled about them in my old age! Having exited the car park and driven up the
driveway, we waited briefly for the automatic gates to open; we then turned
right to head back to the ‘rearing
horse and lad’ roundabout. Our
Stud guide had explained that the statues had been created by two different
people; presumably one specialising in horses, the other in people. We took the first exit off the roundabout,
onto the A1304 into Newmarket; the July and Rowley Mile racecourses were on
our left. Just before the High Street
begins, there is a statue of The Queen with a mare and foal. Further on, signposted to the right, was Tattersalls. I’m not quite sure what I expected, but the town
itself wasn’t what I had imagined. The
road headed slightly downhill towards a roundabout, upon which stood the
Queen Victoria Jubilee Clock Tower. We
were actually looking for the long-stay car park in All Saints Road; we
continued to the end and did an 360 degree turn around the clock tower, then
took the first left into Rous Road.
The residential road was extremely narrow due to parked cars, and we
had to wait for a number of vehicles to drive by in the opposite direction
before we could proceed. We passed the
short-stay car park, before turning right just before the road swung
left. Shortly afterwards we reached Lisburn Road where we turned left and headed to a
T-junction with Vicarage Road. We took a right, and headed past the Palace House
car park entrance for coaches. We
continued along Vicarage Road, before turning right into All Saints Road;
further along, on the left, was the long-stay car park. Having parked up, I went to buy a ticket -
£1.80 covered us for up to four hours; we arrived at 13:15. In fact it more than covered us, because
parking was free after 16:00! Palace
House closed at 17:00. Exiting onto All Saints Road, we turned left to
walk past All Saints Church, taking a right into Palace Street at the
cross-roads. It was just a short walk
to the entrances. The Trainer’s House
and Rothschild yard were to the right hand-side, Palace House itself on the
left. We headed into Palace House to pay our entry fee;
the guy at the reception desk explained the location of each of the exhibits
and attached a neon pink band to each of our bags to prove that we’d paid our
entrance fee. Our main priority was
lunch, so we headed across to The Tack Room café; there were seating areas
inside and out. We spent a penny,
before settling down to lunch at a table for two just inside the sliding
glass doors. We both ordered fish and chips; Sandra had a diet
coke and I had a glass of cloudy apple juice.
Following lunch, we headed to the Rothschild Yard, hoping to see the RoR horse exhibits.
Presently in situ were Starluck, he was now
a flea-bitten grey colour, Our Vic, Purple Moon and a newbie named Mulk; the latter had retired young, having sustained a
knee injury. Sire De Grugy had spent a couple of
months at the Palace House, but had returned home the previous Thursday … so
we missed him. L There was supposed to be a RoR
arena demonstration twice a day, at 11:30 and 14:30. However, there wasn’t one on this
particular afternoon, which was disappointing. A small group of people, which included us,
were taken into the onsite forge by our guide, although restoration hasn’t
been completed yet. Starluck and Mulk had been put
on the horse-walker, and we paid them a visit before we headed to the arena;
it was being used by a young girl riding a pony, doing dressage. The arena is loaned to outsiders. Our guide spoke about the RoR
organisation and their aims when re-training racehorses. The Rothschild yard can house up to eight
horses, although there were only four in residence when we visited. Clare Balding and AP McCoy are patrons of RoR; Richard Johnson, Frankie Dettori
and Guy Disney are ambassadors. A coach load of visitors, from the Elite Racing
Club, had arrived too; they had already visited the arena area prior to heading
back to the Rothschild Yard. Starluck and Purple Moon had been brought out of their
stables to meet everyone. I overheard
the Elite Racing crowd talking about their former syndicate filly Marsha, who
had been sold for a huge sum as a broodmare at the end of her racing career;
the horses are owned by Elite Racing, not the syndicate members. They seemed happy with their Racing Club,
although I do recall a member voicing their dissatisfaction via social media
with regard to the direction the Club was currently taking. We took a look around the RoR
galleries, before heading back into the King’s Yard Galleries which house,
amongst other things, an equicizer. I might have had a go, had it not been for
my ongoing pelvis issue. We then headed across the road to Palace House
itself; it houses British sporting art.
We started on the second floor, wandering through a network of rooms,
viewing paintings. I liked only one, a
Munnings mare and foal! Having looked at the paintings on the first
floor too, we headed back across the road to the shop situated within the
Trainer’s House. We continued our tour
of the museum area, adjacent to the shop, before visiting the loo … in the
dungeon. We left at 16:50 and walked
back to the car park to collect the car. There are two entrances to the long-stay car
park, so we exited via the other entrance, onto Park Lane. Having taken a left, we subsequently took a
right-hand turn into Warrington Street.
At the far end we turned right onto The Avenue. Shortly afterwards we passed the enormous Tattersalls complex; Choc regularly visits here, to buy
and sell, because he’s Apple Tree Stud’s Manager and Racing Manager. The Avenue meets the High Street at a
traffic-light controlled junction; we turned left to begin our journey home
from Newmarket. We retraced our route along the A1304 and A1303,
followed by the A14. On the way back,
there were a couple of guys playing on their diggers at the Girton interchange ... boys and their toys! https://highwaysengland.co.uk/projects/a14-cambridge-to-huntingdon/ We continued along the A428 before joining the A1
for a short distance and turning onto the A421 at the Black Cat roundabout. The satnav took
us to the western outskirts of Bedford; we passed the giant green Cardington
hangars on the way. We skirted Kempston as we headed north, again on the A428. There was prolific house-building going on
in the area. Eventually we took a
right onto the A4280 to head back into Bedford itself. There were a number of impressive houses
along this stretch of the road. Further on we turned right in order to enter
Ashburnham Road; Bedford Thameslink/East Midlands
station is situated on this road, to the right-hand side when travelling in a
southbound direction. Sandra dropped
me off in the short-stay car park just before 18:30 and I headed into the
station to catch a train. I was
fortunate, there was a train waiting on the nearest platform, ready to set
off in less than five minutes. Once
aboard, I walked down the corridor until I found a suitable seat; in
hindsight, it having been a very hot day, I should probably have sat on the
shady side of the train! It was an all-stations service to St Albans; Flitwick, Harlington, Leagrave,
Luton, Luton Airport Parkway and Harpenden in between. I arrived back in St Albans at around
19:10, and walked home. |
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