Craven Meeting Stats Pack

The Craven Meeting is Newmarket's first major event of the season and sees some key Classic Trials on the Rowley Mile course at Flat racing Headquarters, with the Craven Stakes and the Nell Gwyn Stakes serving as proven trial races for both Guineas races in May. Established in 1771, this three-day extravaganza delivers a thrilling kick-off to the flat racing season and it will take place in 2025 from Tuesday, April 15th - Thursday April 17th. With the new Flat turf season just getting into gear, analysing the key trends such as draw biases, age-related stats, and trainer/jockey records could be key in finding some winners at Newmarket's first meeting of the season and we've got plenty of pointers below.

Draw Bias at the Craven Meeting

• The Craven Meeting at Newmarket is run on the Rowley Mile Course, the same track that will be used for the opening two British Classics a few weeks later at the Guineas Festival.
• Draw bias on the Rowley Mile can be unpredictable from one year to the next, as with any wide straight track.
• The Rowley Mile Course is a wide and expansive layout. The rails are consistently moved throughout the season to ensure the ground is optimal for all major meetings. Draw bias at Newmarket tends to identify itself during a meeting, so with the Craven Meeting lasting for three days, the best advice is to watch the early races and identify trends for draw bias or track position.
• Ground conditions in mid-April will tend to be good, and the inclined finish at Newmarket will test horses that have gone fast in the early part of the races.

Trainers & jockeys to Follow at the Craven Meeting

• Top Craven jockeys: The Craven itself is the key race at the three-day meeting. Ryan Moore and William Buick have both won the race three times, more than any jockeys in the last 20 years. Moore's wins have been with Elusive Pimpernel (2010), Trumpet Major (2012) and Toormore (2014), while Buick scored on Masar (2018), Master Of The Seas (2021) and Native Trail (2022).
• Top Craven trainers: Richard Hannon and Charlie Appleby have both won the race three times in the last 20 years. Hannon's winners have been with Toormore (2014), Kool Kompany (2015) and Haatem (2024), while Appleby obliged with Masar (2018), Master Of The Seas (2021) and Native Trail (2022).
• Irish raiders are infrequent in the Craven, with Democratic Deficit for Jim Bolger in 2005 the last Irish-trainer winner.

Conclusion

• The Craven Meeting will offer lots of clues to the Flat season ahead, establishing which trainers have their horses in a forward position so early in the season and which are taking some time to come up to scratch.
• The Nell Gwyn Stakes and the Craven Stakes, the key Classic trials at the meeting, are run as race four on Tuesday and Wednesday, so punters have plenty of time to establish how the track is riding in terms of draw bias and track position.
• Keeping these factors in mind, as well as the trainers and jockeys that have done well in the Craven recently, could be key to finding winners at Newmarket.