IF you’re a regular traveller to Newmarket, be it for racing or for the sales, you may well be familiar with the Bedford Lodge Hotel. The hotel is a popular choice for jockeys, trainers, owners and basically anyone on racing business or leisure with a need to stay a night in the famous location within the racing world.
Bedford Hotel’s chief executive is second generation Irish man Noel Byrne, whose father is from Co Louth, and whose mother is from Achill Island, Co Mayo. Noel, although having just spent over a month in “beautiful” Achill is very much a Newmarket man now.
“We’re lucky to get a complete mixture of racing people to the hotel,” he says. “We’re always busy on racedays and for the sales. For instance today (Thursday), there were lots of people here before the races, sitting out on the terrace relaxing.
“We have a great bar and an award-winning restaurant. We’re also a little bit outside the town and away from the main street in Newmarket so it’s a little more discreet. We’ll have a good crowd of people before and after racing but it’s nice and low-key, a relaxed atmosphere.”
Bedford Lodge is also a popular with people coming to Newmarket for the increasingly popular tours which are arranged by the hugely successful Discover Newmarket, of which Byrne is the chairman. Discover Newmarket is the town’s official tour organisation and works with a range of businesses including trainers, studs, the Palace House museum, hotels and the racecourses to promote Newmarket as a tourist destination.
Pre and post racing, Bedford Lodge offers a relaxed, low key atmosphere
“We represent all the studs and work closely with the trainers to organise private tours. We have a great relationship with trainers. For instance we’ve organised tours to John Gosden’s yard this year and it has allowed people to get up very close to the likes of Enable and Stradivarius, which was amazing. We also work with the Palace House Museum, which offers a unique insight into the history of the town, which isn’t just all about racing.”
Discover Newmarket is also involved with promoting business within the area and would be the ideal service for any individual hoping to establish a bloodstock business interest in the area.
“Because we work so closely with racing businesses here, we could certainly offer a short circuit route to exactly the people you’d like to talk to,” Byrne explains. “Newmarket’s training facilities are already world renowned but you also have so many other aspects of the racing business involved here.
“In general, Newmarket is thriving. Business has been getting stronger and stronger each year and footfall in the town continues to rise. We actually have the lowest closed shop occupancy in the entire country at the moment. To give you an idea of the confidence we have in Newmarket at the moment, we as a hotel business are just about to invest £8 million into the Rutland Arms Hotel.
“There are lots of other businesses keen to invest in the area as well. Things are very positive here and the future is bright.”
John Gosden is one of many big name trainers whose yard you can tour via Discover Newmarket \ Healy Racing