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The Craven meeting at Newmarket, dating back to 1771, marks the start of the Flat racing season. Despite a dip in sales, Tattersalls sold 117 lots for a total of ÂŁ16.5 million, fueling hopes for future racing stars.
Captain Cook was a few months away from landfall after his first circumnavigation of the earth when the first Craven meeting was held on Newmarket heath in the spring of 1771. It is older than any of the Classics, and old enough too to have the great Potoooooooo â who got his name when a stable lad was unsure how to spell potatoes â on the Craven Stakesâs roll of honour in 1782. For a quarter of a millennium, the first meeting of the year on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket has been Flat racingâs first rite of spring.
âItâs what keeps everybody going,â Jason Singh, the marketing director of the famous bloodstock auction house Tattersalls said here on Thursday, âand I speak as a breeder and racehorse owner myself as well as a sales company employee.
âEvery year, at this time of year, everybody has got hopes that the next horse theyâve bought is going to be the next superstar, and until itâs not, it could be. In horse racing, youâve got to be an optimist. If you were a realist, you wouldnât own a racehorse, so itâs full of people who are optimistic about what the season holds, and the start of the flat season is exactly that, everybody is full of hopes and dreams, until theyâre not.â
These days, the dreaming starts on Monday, when dozens of juveniles exercise â or âbreezeâ at the racecourse before being sold at Tattersallsâ Breeze-Up Sale on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. While business this year was not as brisk as last yearâs record-breaking sale, the firm still managed to shift 117 lots at an average price of 134,500gns (ÂŁ141,000): a grand total of ÂŁ16.5m-worth of hope.

The 1782 Craven Stakes winner, Potoooooooo, so named as a nod to a stable ladâs inability to spell potatoes. Photograph: Photo Credit: National Horseracing Museum
Stuart Williams, whose 50-horse stable less than two miles from the course is not big by Newmarket standards, also epitomised the Craven spirit after winning the Nell Gwyn Stakes, a trial for next monthâs 1,000 Guineas, with the 50-1 shot Azleet on Wednesday. âWe donât get a chance to train a horse like this very often,â he said, âso why not go for the Guineas?â
And down in the winnerâs enclosure after Thursdayâs Wood Ditton Stakes, John Warren, racing manager to royalty for a quarter of a century, was allowing his imagination to run away with him just a little, too.
The Wood Ditton is perhaps the Craven meetingâs definitive race for dreamers, as the conditions stipulate that it is open only to unraced three-year-olds. It is debsâ ball for sons of Frankel, Kingman and other top-end stallions, and this yearâs winner, John Gosdenâs Portcullis, was as impressive as any in recent memory.
The Craven meeting is the oldest horse racing event in the UK, marking the beginning of the Flat racing season since 1771.
Tattersalls earned a total of ÂŁ16.5 million from the sale, with an average price of ÂŁ141,000 for 117 lots.
Breeders are optimistic that the horses they purchase will become future racing superstars, a sentiment that drives the excitement of the season.
The Craven meeting is significant as it predates all Classics and has been a traditional event in horse racing for over 250 years.

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Portcullis was bred by King Charles and carries the famous royal colours, but the plan to send his mother, Castle Lady, to be covered by the mighty Frankel was one of the last to be conceived by the late Queen Elizabeth II. Like many of the runners in Thursdayâs race, he looked clueless in the early stages but visibly learned on the job for the remaining three-quarters of a mile and eventually crossed the line nearly six lengths clear of the runner-up.
âHe seems a bit of a natural, which is good,â Warren said. âIâm going to call it a joint effort by all [the late queen and the current king and queen].
âWhat makes it exciting is to think that weâre only on the first rung. When theyâre bred like that, do it like that and theyâre in great hands ⊠Ryan [Moore, the winnerâs jockey] said something like âI think you can be braveâ, so that was indicative of the feel he got from the horse.
âIâm thrilled for the king and queen as theyâre getting so much pleasure out of their horses. I never thought they would get as much pleasure as they are. I always thought the queen might, but I thought the king might be so caught up with so many other things.â

Oisin Murphy wins the Craven Stakes on board Oxagon, who will next run at the 2,000 Guineas, the only British Classic his trainer, John Gosden, has never won. Photograph: Steven Cargill/racingfotos.com/Shutterstock
There is enough time between the Craven and Royal Ascot for Portcullis to have another run, and news of his next destination will be keenly awaited. There is no doubt about where Gosdenâs second winner of the day will be heading, though, as like so many Craven Stakes winners before him Oxagon will run next in the 2,000 Guineas, over the same course and distance on 2 May.
The 2,000 Guineas is the only British Classic to elude Gosden over the course of a 43-year training career, and his disappointments in the race have included Field Of Gold, last yearâs Craven Stakes winner and the hot Guineas favourite, who went down to a half-length defeat.
âIt doesnât worry me that Iâve never won it,â he said. âEveryone thinks I have sleepless nights about it.â Maybe so, but Gosden was still prominent among the dreamers as the 2026 Craven meeting drew to a close.