Newmarket

Town in Suffolk, eastern England, 21 km/13 mi northeast of Cambridge; population (2001) 15,000. A centre for horse racing since the reign of James I, it is the headquarters of the Jockey Club and the National Stud and site of the National Horseracing Museum (1983). There are two racecourses, the July course and the Rowley Mile Racecourse, both owned by the Jockey Club, and lying to the southwest. Approximately a fifth of the town's working population is employed in the racing industry, including veterinary services. Other industries include the manufacture of electronic equipment and agricultural machinery, photographic processing, and light engineering.

The most important races held at Newmarket are the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, the Cambridgeshire, and the Cesarewitch. Horses are trained on Newmarket Heath, where there is an earthwork known as the Devil's Dyke, 12 m/39 ft wide and dating from the time of Boudicca. A bookmaker who is ‘warned off Newmarket Heath’ is banned from all British racecourses. The Animal Health Trust is also based here. In the town is a house reputed to have been occupied by Nell Gwyn, the actor and mistress of Charles II.

Newmarket

Market town in northwest County Cork, Republic of Ireland; population (2002) 1,600. It was founded by the Aldsworth family.

Newmarket was the birthplace of John Philpot Curran (1750–1817), father of Sarah Curran (1782–1808), who was romantically linked to the nationalist leader Robert Emmet and memorialized in a poem by Thomas Moore.

Newmarket

Town and seat of York Regional Municipality, in southern Ontario; population (1990) 45,500. Newmarket lies on the Holland River, 45 km/28 mi north of Toronto. It was settled in the early 19th century by Quakers, and developed into an agricultural region specializing in dairy farming. Nowadays, the town is undergoing rapid growth as a suburb.