royal newmarket.

​Nowadays, Ascot is primarily associated with royalty, except on Derby Day when Epsom is graced by Her Majesty’s presence. Yet during the formative years of the sport, extending into the previous century, Newmarket was the playground of royalty, especially our Kings.
Pre the Merry Monarch, the 2nd King Charles, Newmarket, in association with the rest of the country, had suffered under the reign of the niggardly, warts and all, Cromwell, and rural entertainments such as cock-fighting, bull-baiting and horse racing were banned, for fear that large gatherings of people might be the first steps toward a royalist uprising. Shades of 2021, wouldn’t you say?
It is perhaps little known that misery-guts Cromwell, though he didn’t know it, was responsible in a small way in raising the first shoots of horse racing’s recovery from his prohibition of the sport. The nucleus of his fine stable of horses became the Royal Stud, with the best of them acquired by Charles for his own service, with others distributed throughout the land, improving the quality of horses from north to south.
Charles, ‘the known enemy of Virginity and Chastity’, made no haste toward Newmarket, it has to be said. It took him six-years to make the journey and when he arrived, he took it upon himself to have a good moan about the place. Though the royal stables were in good order, the ravages of Cromwell’s neglect meant the Palace was in disrepair, allowing him no royal accommodation. He found the heath ploughed, making it unsuitable for hawking and there were no hounds for hunting. A poor state of affairs, you will have to agree.
After trying out the homes of the local gentry, and doubtless finding them inadequate, Charles bought, though never paid for, Audley End and finally he could enjoy Newmarket and with his wife elsewhere, the debauchery he was famous for could begin. Enter Louise de Querouaille, Nell Gwynn, Moll Knight, etc. It is possible Charles had his own view on what constituted the Royal Stud.
Although in 1665 he established the Newmarket Town Plate and later made himself a supreme judge and Steward of the Jockey Club, I don’t think horse racing can be fairly named as one of Charles’ most needful of pastimes.
William 2nd and Mary did embrace Newmarket and horse racing. He threw money at the rebuilding of the Palace and all the wild daffodils growing in the vicinity of the town can be put down to him. When he visited Newmarket, he ensured that everyone knew about it. He arrived in pomp, in a coach and six, followed by every equipage imaginable conveying the finest gentleman and ladies London could spare. And he liked a bet. And nothing mingy, either. He once staked 2,000 guineas on a match race between himself and the Duke of Somerset. His favourite victory it is said was when his Stiff Dick got one over on the previously invincible Careless, owned by the Marquess of Wharton. I suspect losing to the reigning monarch did more for your long-term prospects than defeating him.
Royal cads and Newmarket have made historically good bedfellows. George, Prince Regent, lived his regal life in mimicry of Charles, with, as it is with the youthful, enough of anything never being adequate. He gambled lucklessly, mixed with the Barrymores, ‘Hellgate’, ‘Cripplegate’, ‘Newgate’ and their sister ‘Billingsgate’, congenial company but not the sort future kings should associate with. And had affairs, as any young bachelor king is expected to do.
He did, though, have as many virtues as vices, one of which was the royal stable, having as many as twenty-five in training and was in the habit of bidding for any horse that took his fancy. In four-years he won nearly 200 races, one of which was the 1788 Derby with Sir Thomas. Then from 1800-1807 another 107 winners came his way. In fact, in twenty-years he won 313 races.
Though Queen Victoria maintained a stud at Hampton Court and attended Royal Ascot, she did have much interest in horse racing and did not visit Newmarket.
The Prince of Wales, to become Edward 7th, made good his mother’s lack of interest in the sport by taking it to his heart, though his enviable success as a breeder/owner was down to his purchase of the mare Perdita who on the advice of his trainer John Porter he paid over 1,000 guineas for. She became known as ‘the gold mine’. She bred his Majesty, Florizel, Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee. The first named won many races including the Goodwood, Manchester and Jockey Club Cups, the second-named won the Derby, Eclipse, St.Leger and Ascot Gold Cup, the third-named usurped his full-brothers by winning the Triple Crown and the Eclipse.
John Porter trained not in Newmarket but in Hampshire and due to the inaccessibility of his stables, the Prince of Wales moved his horses to Egerton House in Newmarket, the home of Richard Marsh. His horses remained in Newmarket for the rest of his life. Upon his death the royal racehorses were bequeathed to King George V.
All of the bare facts above I have purloined from R. C. Lyle’s fabulous book ‘Royal Newmarket’, with illustrations by none other than Lionel Edwards, R.I. Published in 1945, price 35-shillings, I expect a copy in good condition to be valued far above the £20 I paid for my more ragged edition.