The July Festival

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] 1605 (February 27) – James I visits Newmarket and likes what he sees. 1609 (March) – First reference to the King attending a horse race at Newmarket. 1765 – The July Meeting is staged for the first time. 1786 – The July Stakes is

A race known as the Bahrain Trophy was staged as a seven-furlong three-year-old only handicap up until the 1991 season, when a new contest carrying that title was established. The Bahrain Trophy, as we now know it, was inaugurated that year as an extended mile-and-three-quarters Listed race for three-year-olds.   

At the 1972 July Festival, Newmarket trainer Bernard van Cutsem won the first running of the seven-furlong juvenile race now known as the 32Red.com Superlative Stakes, with Great Love.   

The TNT July Stakes is the oldest two-year-old race staged in Britain with a history dating back to 1786 when Lord Clermont’s Bullfinch took the inaugural spoils.  

First run in 1894, the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes is named in honour of Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who became the Princess Of Wales on her marriage to the future King Edward VII in 1862.

Upgraded to Group One status in 2004, the £185,000 Falmouth Stakes, sponsored by Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, is one of the most prestigious races of the season for fillies and mares.  

Newmarket’s July Cup, the centrepiece of the three-day Champagne Lanson July Festival, is one of the most valuable sprints in the European racing calendar, with the 2010 running worth £400,000. For the third year, the Darley July Cup is part of the Global Sprint Challenge.