Trainer fines and police chases - there's never a dull moment on the Newmarket gallops

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To determine which gallop you need to be at and when to see any action in Newmarket of a morning, you need three things. A calendar, an accurate weather forecast and a knowledge of the tractor maintenance times. Oh, and binoculars. 

Some gallops are traditionally open and closed for good even before the Flat season gets going, one such being Waterhall, to whom we waved goodbye for another year last week. Waterhall is open from late-February through April, all while the eyes of the racing world are typically on Cheltenham and Aintree, and it closed even before the core Flat season started at Newmarket last weekend. 

This expanse of turf is the most easterly part of the vast 2,500 acres of property owned by the Jockey Club in Newmarket, located on the Bury Side of town as opposed to the Racecourse Side in the west. Waterhall is the first proper grass gallop to be open every year, and its unique dog-leg nine-furlong sweep is useful for inexperienced three-year-olds who can often be seen going single file to the bend (which is seven furlongs) and then join up (line abreast) to the nine pole. This area lies close to a landmark known as the Boy's Grave, which appears in one of Dick Francis's novels. 

Waterhall can also be useful for getting the older horses going with a view to getting them on to the neighbouring, and much more famous, Limekilns gallops, which have been reopened only recently. 

There have been some top-class horses on Waterhall this spring, including 2,000 Guineas hero Notable Speech and Group 1 winner Dubai Honour. But the quickest thing on two legs there in March was the police as they chased illegal hare coursers off the property – a not uncommon episode on Newmarket Heath. This time the miscreants effected their escape by smashing their 4x4 through the wooden gate that trainers usually use to access the site. 

Before Waterhall opens, the big day in the town's calendar is February 1, when the turf canter on Warren Hill opens. 

Horses exercise on Warren Hill in NewmarketCredit: Edward Whitaker

The day has only symbolic meaning these days – before the installation of two all-weather canters on the uphill facility it was the only canter available. Around 30 years ago, most horses would have to trot through winter as there were no cantering facilities available until February 1, when horses were literally queuing up to get on it. 

Due to one of the wettest springs known across East Anglia, the closed sign was often up during March. Not that a closed sign stopped one trainer from going up it one day with expensive consequences. 

Rob Achner, operations manager at Jockey Club Estates, says: "One trainer has ignored the closed sign on Warren Hill already this year and sent his string up the grass canter in full view of some of our employees. He was hit with the maximum fine possible [thought to be well into four figures]." 

As well as 50 miles of turf gallops, the JCE maintains 14 miles of all-weather facilities, which have a lot of use all year round. Rather than closed signs, these facilities, including the Cambridge Road Polytrack, Long Hill Polytrack and Al Bahathri Polytrack, have red warning lights installed to tell people when they are closed, usually for tractor maintenance, but not always. 

Achner adds: "We introduced the lights system a few years ago and it has worked well on the whole, although we've had to fine some trainers who try to sneak on when they think the tractor has finished. 

"On occasions the red-light system is used when you have an injured horse on a track that can often be out of sight of the start of the gallop. We've had people ignore the lights in these situations and put themselves in real danger as well as those on the ground. Needless to say they got a fine as well as a stiff talking to." 

High-profile arrival for Haynes

Alice Haynes tells me she has recently taken delivery of the high-class four-year-old Cairo, whose biggest claim to fame is that he finished second to then stablemate Paddington in the Irish 2,000 Guineas last year. 

Haynes is spread out across three yards dotted around the foot of Warren Hill including her main base at Machell Place, which she moved into in January, and has entered her new arrival in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot but also has overseas targets in mind. 

Cairo (purple silks) has joined Alice HaynesCredit: Edward Whitaker

A majority share was purchased in the son of Quality Road by Kuwaiti businessman Refai Alghraiban before his final outing for Aidan O'Brien in the Group 1 Dubai Turf at Meydan in March, when he finished 12th. 

Haynes says: "Refai Alghraiban has kindly sent us Cairo, who we hope to get a prep run into ahead of the Queen Anne. The owner also has a three-year-old, Rich Harry, with us and also two nice two-year-olds." 

As for plans after Ascot, Haynes adds: "He's rated 110 and is the sort of horse you could send to Saratoga in the summer, when he could well get ten furlongs in time."

Sid turns back the clock

The now-retired James Eustace has recently resurrected the practice of riding a hack on the heath to watch his son Harry's string at exercise and thinks more trainers should do it, although he admits the pace of modern living is a factor in its demise. 

Eustace, who still lives in the house at Park Lodge Stables on Park Lane that he has now rented out to James Horton, keeps 'Sid' at the yard. Sid is actually a former racehorse named Longside who won Eustace "one of the worst maiden handicaps ever staged at Yarmouth" in his days in training at the premises. 

When I first ventured on to the heath in the 1980s, riding hacks – rather than driving around by car – was commonplace with the likes of Sir Henry Cecil, Sir Michael Stoute, Luca Cumani and Alec Stewart generally seen astride a former racehorse or eventer on Warren Hill especially. 

With more horses to deal with, modern trainers jump in the car to get about, especially on work mornings, of which Wednesday and Saturday are the busiest. 

Eustace says: "I actually commute on Sid to Harry's yard on the Bury Road by going up Park Lane and then on to Warren Hill, and then across Long Hill and through on to the Bury Road. 

Harry Eustace leads his father James on 'Sid' onto the Limekilns

"It has lots of advantages including no driving, which means no traffic jams and I can get about on the horsewalks easily enough. Having a hack has died out in the past ten years as people are in such a rush these days, but if there's a loose horse to catch Sid can access places where cars can't get to. He's not that big so I can easily get on and off him whereas these strapping great hacks are hard to get back on once you're off them." 

Eustace adds: "It does seem that there are less gaps in the hedges for us to get through than there used to be 20 years ago. Back then, Sir Henry Cecil and Sir Michael Stoute used hacks to get about but you rarely see them these days." 

Riding a hack has many advantages, including having an elevated view while watching the work. 

Eustace says: "The good thing about Sid is that, unlike most ex-racehorses, he will stand and watch other horses gallop all day long whereas most of them whip round and want to join in." 

Bred by Juddmonte, Sid, or Longside, started his career with Charlie Hills before winning one of his 26 starts, for Eustace at Yarmouth in 2016. 

The former trainer says: "His dam is Hypoteneuse, hence the name Longside, and he won what must have been the worst ever maiden handicap run at Yarmouth. His claim to fame is that he is a half-brother to Sextant, a one-time Classic hope for Sir Michael Stoute a few years ago and we're sticking to that for now. Hopefully the Limekilns will be open for most of the summer so we can get out to see what's going on."

Read these next:

Breeders' Cup heroine Inspiral impresses on the Limekilns as she closes in on Newbury return 

Big blow for racing staff after town's chaplain loses funding - but Simon Bailey is still keeping the faith 

Sir Henry Cecil and Lord Lucan's driver used to love it - but now a great racing pub is no more 

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