Few cities in England are as popular with the outside world as Newmarket. Granted, the city's meager population of fifteen thousand pales in comparison with places like London or Manchester but it isn't always size that dictates importance. Newmarket is also a bit of an anomaly in the fact that its name is a complete misnomer. This town, which rests a mere sixty five miles north of London, is no new market at all but in fact an ancient town that predates the Middle Ages. What is perhaps Newmarket's most impressive aspect, however, is its association with the sport of kings: Thoroughbred horse racing. This ancient and incredibly lucrative sport is widely considered to have had its start in the unassuming streets of Newmarket and to this day the city is the largest race horse training center in all of the United Kingdom. Between the massive July Course and Newmarket Racecourse, this aged burg in Suffolk is widely cited as the horseracing capitol of the world.
There are over twenty five hundred racehorses that call Newmarket home, making the horse population of the city over one sixth of the human population. Special roads are built specially for horses that are traveling from the stable to the racetrack to make the elite trainers sure that their horse will have a safe and efficient trek before the event begins. Horse racing isn't just a passion in Newmarket; it's THE passion. Over a quarter of the city's employment is based in the thoroughbred industry and over sixty farms exist within Newmarket's city limits. In these farms can be found over seventy of the most esteemed professional trainers in the world making Newmarket something of a new-Mecca to anyone devoted to this ages-old practice.
Ages-old is most definitely the way to describe horse racing in general and Newmarket in particular. It is said that the sport first got its start in Newmarket around the 1100s, which would put the city among the first ever to embrace horse racing in the post-classical period. The popularity of the sport and Newmarket's connection to it exploded into prominence when none other than the first King James visited the town to witness a race. Later kings followed suit with Charles I inaugurating the first official "Cup" race in the city in 1634. With such strong ties to horse racing of both the past and the present, it is little wonder that Newmarket has earned a reputation for being the horse racing capitol and, if the aforementioned feats weren't enough to cement said reputation, the National Horseracing Museum located right in Newmarket would certainly quell any further arguments on the subject. This massive monument is of great interest to people from all over the surrounding area and, whether you like horse racing or not, the museum is certainly worthy of admiration if only for its grandeur. This is not unlike Newmarket itself: A grand, esteemed city that is of the utmost historical significance yet still manages to be a quaint and enjoyable home to the thousands of citizens who live there.
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