Cambridgeshire Countryfile


Cambridgeshire

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-ELLIE HARRISON:

-Cambridgeshire - a patchwork of fields

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and vast, open fenland.

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I'm on the border of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, in Newmarket,

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the antithesis of a one-horse town.

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For the past 350 years, it's been an equine epicentre.

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What makes Newmarket famous isn't really its racetrack -

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58 other towns have them - but its historic heathland.

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And that's what makes Warren Hill Gallops one of the best

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training grounds for horse and rider in the country.

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While most of us are still contemplating breakfast,

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this place is alive with the sound of thundering hooves.

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These gallops are the heart of the whole racing scene

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that Newmarket is built on.

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I'm meeting Nick Patton, whose job it is to maintain the heathland.

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-What about it is so good?

-We've been here since the 1600s.

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It's a fantastic bit of land.

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It's so free draining, fantastic grass gallops.

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There's everything here that the trainer wants.

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It must take a lot of work to maintain this.

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-That's your job, right? You and your team.

-Yeah.

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-What have you got to do to keep this up?

-It's a 365-day-a-year operation.

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We've got 2,500 acres here

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and 90 miles of all-weather artificial gallops,

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and of course, you know, we've had a long, hard winter,

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and even in the hardest winters

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we'll be able to keep the artificial gallops open and operational,

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so when airports and highways are closed,

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we're still getting horses out here to train.

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So, we're on grass here now. Surely that's just a bit of mowing, is it?

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Yeah, you would think so.

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This is one of our peat moss gallops that we've got here.

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Ever since the Second World War, a layer of peat has been added to it.

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-What, every year?

-Not every year. Every second year now.

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And worked into it.

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So it always retains that little bit of moisture,

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so even in the driest conditions,

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it still adds a bit of cushion for the horses to gallop on.

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To keep the legendary gallops in fine form, Nick employs

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a team of heathmen to make sure the going is consistently good.

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As well as the peat moss grass gallops,

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there's an all-weather artificial track.

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It looks more like the contents of a vacuum cleaner bag to me.

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-It's predominantly sand...

-Oh, yeah.

-..fibre,

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little bits of PVC rubber, all joined together with wax.

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We're trying to mimic a turf surface,

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so it's got a bit of spring and bounce to it.

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What is that for?

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Every now and again we just check the compaction of the surface,

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so we will push that in and feel how compacted the surface is.

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We'll rotovate it a bit deeper or work the surface a bit deeper

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if that's getting a bit firm underneath.

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There are currently 80 racehorse trainers

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exercising just over 2,500 horses on these gallops every day.

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William Haggas has been training his horses here for 25 years.

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What is it that makes Newmarket so good?

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We've just got everything here.

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Absolutely. We got every grass gallop you can imagine.

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We've got... We can go right handed, left handed.

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We've got all-weather surfaces that go right handed, left handed,

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uphill, downhill even. We've got everything.

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A trainer's job has got so many things involved with it,

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I guess anything from finances to physio,

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but this moment where they're really letting rip

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and galloping, that must be a special thing for you?

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It's a joyous thing, doing what we do. It's fantastic,

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especially good in the summer when it's light and warm.

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No better job than this.

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The historic heathland may be at the heart of racehorsing,

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but later I'll be visiting its headquarters,

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the place where the racing rule book was written.

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JOHN CRAVEN: In the heart of Cambridgeshire

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stands Ely Cathedral -

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majestic, awe-inspiring.

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Once it was surrounded by water,

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and it's always been known as "the ship of the Fens".

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It's easy to imagine how this great building,

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appearing through the mists,

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offered the promise of refuge and safety to weary pilgrims.

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For centuries, the cathedral has dominated the surrounding landscape,

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and I'm here today to watch and to listen to

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a remarkable experiment involving its world-famous octagon tower.

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Created in the 14th century,

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it's a masterpiece of medieval design and engineering.

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Well, I've just climbed 165 steps to the top of the octagon,

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and I'm now amongst the angels.

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Now, seven sides of this tower are said to represent everyday life,

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the seven days of the week. But the eighth side represents eternity,

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hence the angels.

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The angels guide the faithful to the heights of heaven,

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with Christ at its centre.

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Centuries ago, the Benedictine choir stood in exactly this spot,

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and from here, their voices reached up

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to the uppermost heights of the tower.

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In medieval times,

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the monks had their choir stalls directly underneath the octagon.

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In fact, some of them would be up there, 50 metres high,

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and the idea was that their voices would unite heaven and earth.

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Well, it's an interesting theory, but would it really work?

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We're going to try it out now with the help of the choristers

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and their director of music. What do you think, Paul?

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Is it possible to hear voices from right up there?

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It's a story we've heard a number of times.

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Whether we're actually going to hear it well

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and whether it's going to work at this kind of distance

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is something we just don't know,

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because we've never tried it before.

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We've got four of our choristers

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right up there in the angel windows,

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we've got the main group down here...

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We're going to do it!

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# He's got the whole wide world in his hands

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# He's got the whole wide world in his hands

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# He's got the whole wide world in his hands

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# He's got the world in his hands

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# He's got the tiny little hedgehogs in his hands

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# He's got the tiny little hedgehogs in his hands

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# He's got the tiny little hedgehogs in his hands

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# He's got the whole world in his hands

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# He's got the whole world in his hands

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# He's got the whole world in his hands. #

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-It worked, didn't it?

-You did it.

-Yeah, well done.

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Well done!

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JOHN LAUGHS

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Now, there's a very good reason why

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the choristers have just been singing about hedgehogs.

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For centuries, this cathedral has been a sanctuary for pilgrims,

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but now it's also about to become a safe haven for hedgehogs as well.

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Out in the cathedral grounds, head gardener Aine Rodriguez

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is putting the finishing touches to a temporary hedgehog pen.

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This is an example. We've made three separate houses,

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-because apparently they like their own space, John.

-Right.

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-And the houses have been made from recycled wood.

-You built this?

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Yeah, from offcuts of wood.

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Not quite as elaborate as the building I've just been in.

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No, not at all. That's taken centuries.

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-Well, that's awesome.

-Thank you.

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-All we need now are some hedgehogs.

-Exactly.

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So, here come the new arrivals.

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-Let's take them to meet their new home, shall we?

-Absolutely.

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Heading up the release scheme at the Shepreth Hedgehog Hospital

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is Rebecca Willis.

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How long would you like them to be in the pen for?

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Ideally 10 to 14 days, if possible, just to acclimatise them.

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They've been in a hospital environment, some for many months,

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so this is what they need just to give them a bit of a boost.

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What's that little blue tag on him?

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Well, he's known as 45,

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this is his number all throughout.

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When they come in to us, we track them from day one,

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when the person will bring them in,

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because they've been underweight or injured.

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They're given a tracking number and the idea is that if you,

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or anyone in the area, sees this one,

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you know it's one of ours, we can come straight back.

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Little nose coming up there.

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Hedgehogs are in serious decline, aren't they? How bad is it?

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Oh, it's serious.

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If you look back to the 1950s, there are estimates of maybe 32 million.

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Today, we're lucky if we've probably got a million left in the UK.

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They're being hit, motor cars, hedgerows are disappearing

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where you would naturally find them...

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If we should find one in our back garden, what should we do?

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OK, if you find it at night, that's not a problem,

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-that should be normal, healthy behaviour.

-Just leave it?

-Yes.

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If you want to put food out, that's great. If you want put cat food out.

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Water is super. Most importantly, if you find it out during the day,

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you've got to contact someone straight away.

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-If you see one in the daytime?

-That's not right. That's dehydration,

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that might be parasitic load, it could be injured.

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Newmarket, the headquarters of British horse racing.

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The Jockey Club Rooms have been the countryside seat

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of Britain's most influential racing body for more than 250 years.

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There's a world-famous private members' club

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few people have had the privilege of stepping inside.

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Within these four walls, a rare glimpse into the proud

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and quirky history of British horse racing.

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Room steward Alan Medlock is giving me

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a guided tour through the corridors of power.

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Decisions made here shaped horse racing as we know it today,

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and this chap, Henry Rous, wrote the rule book.

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He was the man who pulled all the rules and regulations that existed

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by word of mouth and wrote them down,

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and invented the handicapping system.

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They pull together the registration of silks

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and the colours that horses ride under, and also weighing.

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So he was the man who put all this structure into racing.

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And it still exists to this day.

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-So he deserves his place on the wall?

-Oh, absolutely.

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-Essential part of the industry.

-Excellent.

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Another horse...

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Another horse, another horse...

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Well, this is the Coffee Room, the spiritual home of The Jockey Club.

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What about in here? What are these little cubbyholes?

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These were the areas where people would meet and congregate,

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-making book.

-What does that mean?

-Bookmakers.

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Probably this group here might be offering, say,

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7-2 if you bet 5,000 guineas.

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Another group might be offering slightly better odds

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if you put 10,000 guineas.

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And in 1827, we know that in one bet,

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a gentleman called John Gully,

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a notorious gambler,

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lost £40,000 on one race.

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-In today's terms, that's £2.8 million.

-Wow.

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So who WERE these people? Why did they have so much money to gamble?

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Landed gentry and dukes and peers of the realm,

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and knights, and goodness knows what else.

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-So, fortunes were won and lost here?

-And probably estates.

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-SHE LAUGHS

-Wow.

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Well, we're going into the Morning Room now,

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and of all the pictures in here,

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the most important one is this one of Eclipse.

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When they started to keep a record of bloodlines,

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a crucial aspect of breeding horses, he is number one.

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If you buy a thoroughbred horse anywhere in the world,

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96% of the bloodlines can be traced

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back through the male line to Eclipse.

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Goodness, he's the grand-daddy of them all.

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He is the grand-daddy of them all. When he died

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and they performed an autopsy on him,

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they found that he had a 14.5lb heart.

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Average horse is 10, 10.5lb,

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so you've got a 40% supercharger.

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What's this? This looks a bit macabre.

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It's one of the hooves of Eclipse, that was presented

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to The Jockey Club in 1832 by King William IV

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to mark the work that The Jockey Club were doing in racing.

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This is a snuff box?

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Snuff box, inkwells, they were made in different forms,

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but this one, I would imagine, would be a stuff box.

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While The Jockey Club no longer makes the rules, it still invests

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money to ensure the long-term success of this sport of kings.

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