First cuckoo heralds Flat racing’s start but it may go the way of the dodo

Attendance over the three days for Newmarket’s Craven meeting has dropped by nearly 50% between 2019 and 2023. Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

The first cuckoo, daffodils in full bloom and the Craven meeting at Newmarket. For racing fans, it was always hard to say which of the three was the most compelling sign that spring had finally arrived.

But times change, the daffs have usually been and gone before Cheltenham these days, and Guineas trials now seem to have been consigned to history too. Four of the 11 runners in Saturday’s Greenham Stakes, including Esquire, the winner, were geldings, and therefore unable to run in any British Classics. As for the Craven meeting at Newmarket last week, Haatem, who took the main 2,000 Guineas trial, is 25-1 for the Classic on 4 May, while Pretty Crystal, the Nell Gwyn Stakes winner, will need to be supplemented to run in the 1,000 Guineas the following day.