Staged in a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in mid-April, the Craven Meeting is the opening fixture of the season at Newmarket Racecourse(s) in Suffolk, East Anglia. Consisting of a total of 21 races run on the older of the two courses at ‘Headquarters’, the Rowley Mile, the meeting takes its name from the Craven Stakes, a Group 3 contest run over a mile on the final day, which is a recognised trial for the first Classic of the season, the 2,000 Guineas, run over the same course and distance the following month. The Craven Stakes, in turn, is named after William Craven, Sixth Baron Craven, a one-time member of the Jockey Club.
The Craven Stakes was established, in its current guise, in 1878 and the first horse to complete the Craven Stakes/2,000 Guineas double was Scot Free in 1884. More recently, the likes of Dancing Brave (1986) and Doyoun (1988) have followed suit, but the last colt to win both races was Haafd, trained by the late Barry Hills, in 2004.
The eponymous Craven Stakes aside, the Craven Meeting four more Listed and Pattern races. In chronological order, they are the Group 3 Earl of Sefton Stakes, run over nine furlongs and open to horses aged four years and upwards, the Listed Feilden Stakes, run over the same distance, but open to three-year-olds only, the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes, run over seven furlongs and open to three-year-old fillies, and the Group 3 Abernant Stakes, run over six furlongs and open to horses aged three years and upwards. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, two fillies – Speciosa (2006) and Cachet (2022) – have completed the Nell Gwyn Stakes/1,000 Guineas double, while two more – Sky Lantern (2013) and Billesdon Brook (2018) – won the first fillies’ Classic after being beaten in the Nell Gwyn Stakes.