One of the highlights of the autumn racing season, the Cambridgeshire Meeting is a three-day fixture staged on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket in Suffolk, East Anglia in late September. The meeting takes it name from that of the Cambridgeshire Handicap, a prestigious and valuable ‘Heritage Handicap’ run over nine furlongs on the third and final day, known as ‘Cambridgeshire Saturday’.
Open to horses aged three years and upwards and currently worth £175,000 in prize money, the Cambridgeshire Handicap forms the first leg of the traditional ‘Autumn Double’, with the second leg, the Cesarewitch Handicap, also staged at Newmarket two weeks later. In the better part of two centuries, just three horses have won both races in the same season, the last of them being Plaisanterie, way back in 1885.
Ahead of the Cambridgeshire Handicap itself, Cambridgeshire Saturday also features two major two-year-old races, which inevitably have a bearing on the Classic races the following season. Both are run over six furlongs, but the first, the Cheveley Park Stakes, is open to two-year-old fillies, while the second, the Middle Park Stakes, is open to two-year-old colts. For the record, the 2025 winners, True Love and Wise Approach, are currently on offer at 18/1 and 33/1, respectively, for the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas back on the Rowley Mile in early May 2026.
There is no shortage of Group race action earlier in the meeting, either. Cambridgeshire Thursday features the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes, run over seven furlongs and open to two-year-old colts and geldings, while Cambridgeshire Friday features both the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes and the Group 2 Joel Stakes. The former is run over seven furlongs and open to two-year-old fillies, while the latter is run over a mile and open to horses aged three years and upwards, of both sexes.