About
The National Horseracing Museum occupies a five-acre site at Palace House in the centre of Newmarket, the town that has been the acknowledged headquarters of British flat racing since Charles II moved his court here in the seventeenth century. The museum reopened on this site in November 2016, in buildings that were once the royal stables and the King's own palace, and it brings three distinct attractions together under a single ticket: the National Horseracing Museum itself, the Fred Packard Museum and Galleries of British Sporting Art, and the Rothschild Yard, home to the national charity Retraining of Racehorses.
The museum galleries trace the sport from its origins in the royal enthusiasms of the Stuart monarchs — Charles II remains the only reigning British monarch to have ridden a winner — through the codification of racing under the Jockey Club, the development of the thoroughbred from three Arabian foundation sires, the classic races, the great horses and jockeys, and the modern industry of breeding, training and betting. Displays cover the practical craft of racing too: the work of stable staff, the making of a saddle, the physiology of a racehorse at speed.
The art holdings are exceptional and would justify a visit on their own. British sporting art was for two centuries a serious and technically demanding tradition, and the galleries hold works by George Stubbs, John Frederick Herring, Alfred Munnings and their contemporaries — pictures in which anatomy, character and landscape are handled with a rigour that the genre's reputation as decorative country-house furniture badly undersells.
In the Rothschild Yard, retired racehorses are stabled and shown to visitors, with daily sessions demonstrating what happens to thoroughbreds after their racing careers end. That combination — history, art and living animals — is what makes the site more than a sports museum.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Closed on Mondays year-round except Bank Holiday Mondays.
- Winter closing is 4:00pm rather than 5:00pm, from 1 November to 31 March — worth checking before a late-afternoon arrival.
- Palace House does not open until 1:00pm, so if the royal palace is your priority, arrive in the afternoon rather than first thing.
- Your general admission ticket is automatically upgraded to a twelve-month annual pass, which makes a second visit free.
- Time your visit around a Meet the Horses session in the Rothschild Yard — 11:00am and 2:00pm in summer, midday in winter.
- Children up to 16 go free, which makes this considerably better value for families than the headline adult price suggests.
- Watch the strings working on Warren Hill or Long Hill early in the morning before you come in; it is free and it makes the galleries make sense.
- Allow at least three hours: this is three attractions on one site, and two hours is not enough to do all of them properly.
Highlights
Palace House and Charles II's Newmarket
Newmarket exists as a racing town because Charles II made it effectively a second capital, holding court here twice a year, building a palace and riding in races himself — he remains the only reigning British monarch to have ridden a winner. Palace House is the surviving portion of that royal complex, restored as part of the museum project, and walking through it makes plain how directly the sport's early institutional shape was determined by royal enthusiasm.
Interpretation covers the Stuart court's residence, the races Charles instituted and the town's consequent growth around the Heath.
The Packard Galleries of British Sporting Art
The Fred Packard Museum and Galleries hold one of the most significant public collections of British sporting art anywhere, with works by George Stubbs, John Frederick Herring senior, Alfred Munnings, Ben Marshall and their contemporaries. Stubbs in particular repays close attention: his understanding of equine anatomy, gained by dissection, produced pictures of a rigour that places him among the finest animal painters in European art rather than merely the best of a minor English genre.
The galleries make the case for sporting art as serious painting, and they largely succeed.
The Rothschild Yard and Retraining of Racehorses
The yard houses former racehorses in the care of Retraining of Racehorses, the national charity that finds second careers for thoroughbreds after they leave the track, and holds daily Meet the Horses sessions in which handlers bring animals out, discuss their racing records and demonstrate the retraining process.
Seeing living thoroughbreds a few metres away, after two hours of galleries about the breed, changes the whole register of the visit. It is also the part of the site that addresses most honestly what happens to the tens of thousands of horses the industry produces.
The making of the thoroughbred
Every thoroughbred racehorse alive descends in the male line from one of three stallions imported into England between the 1680s and the 1720s: the Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian. Displays trace how those Arabian and Barb bloodlines were crossed with native mares and then closed into a studbook, producing within a century an animal bred for a single purpose and faster than anything before it.
The genetics, the General Stud Book and the economics of modern breeding are all covered, which explains a great deal about why the industry looks as it does.
Collections
The site holds three related collections. The National Horseracing Museum's own collection covers the history of British flat and jump racing: trophies, silks, saddlery, riding equipment, documents, photographs, film, and material associated with famous horses, jockeys, trainers and owners from the seventeenth century to the present.
The Fred Packard Museum and Galleries of British Sporting Art hold paintings, sculpture and works on paper by artists including George Stubbs, John Frederick Herring, Ben Marshall and Alfred Munnings, forming one of the principal public collections of the genre.
The Rothschild Yard is not a collection but a working stable operated with Retraining of Racehorses, housing former racehorses shown to the public daily.
The National Horseracing Museum
Galleries covering the origins, institutions, horses, people and modern industry of British racing, in the restored royal stables.
Fred Packard Museum and Galleries of British Sporting Art
A major public collection of sporting painting and sculpture, including works by Stubbs, Herring and Munnings.
Palace House
The surviving portion of Charles II's Newmarket palace, restored and interpreted, opening to visitors from 1:00pm.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.