Training
Facilities

Clarehaven Stables

Located just off the Bury Road, the yard’s peaceful setting borders Newmarket’s extensive training grounds. Its own wide range of facilities includes four covered horse walkers, two high speed treadmills, an indoor school and outdoor trotting ring, plus grass turn out pens.

Built at the turn of the 20th Century, Clarehaven Stables has housed some of the best-known thoroughbreds to have raced on British turf; starting with the remarkable Pretty Polly, the 1904 Triple Crown winner, through to 11-time Group 1 winning mare and dual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, Enable, over 100 years later.

Newmarket Training Grounds

The Newmarket Training Grounds span 2,500 acres and boast an unequalled array of facilities in terms of their scale and variety, facilities which are available to all Newmarket trainers.

Racehorses have been trained here for over 350 years and integral to its enduring status as ‘the headquarters of racing’ is Newmarket Heath. Managed by Jockey Club Estates, the turf on the Heath has been protected and nurtured for centuries, avoiding being ploughed up during the wars and being kept free of railway lines and new roads.

As well as protecting the Heath, Jockey Club Estates has invested millions of pounds in new facilities and the latest artificial surfaces.

History

The yard was built at the turn of the 20th Century and its first occupant was Peter Gilpin who named the yard Clarehaven after a horse he had trained to win the 1900 Cesarewitch.

Gilpin’s Clarehaven career got off to a flying start thanks to the exploits of the exceptional filly, Pretty Polly, who won the Triple Crown in 1904 and in doing so helped Gilpin become champion trainer that same year. Pretty Polly eventually won 22 of her 24 races before her retirement in 1906, the same year in which Gilpin enjoyed further Classic success when Spearmint won the Derby.

After the First World War, Gilpin secured another landmark for Clarehaven when winning the inaugural running of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Comrade in 1920. However, it would be more than thirty years before the next Classic winner was trained from the yard.

In 1952, trainer Geoffrey Brooke was installed at Clarehaven and within two seasons, Brooke delivered a Classic winner when Our Babu won the 2000 Guineas. Our Babu was owned by David Robinson, who himself would go on to purchase Clarehaven in 1968, at a time when the self-made British businessman had over 150 horses in training.

Under Robinson’s ownership, trainer Paul Davey took over the reins from Geoffrey Brook and among the top-class horses to come under Davey’s care was My Swallow. The winner of all seven of his starts as a two-year-old, My Swallow had the misfortune to be of the same generation as both Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef, finishing third in the 1971 running of the 2000 Guineas in what became a legendary renewal of the Classic.