Zanzoun takes Nell Gwyn as Flat season gets under way

After weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures, the only hint of spring as Newmarket opened its doors for a new season was a small flight of swallows over the Rowley Mile - back from Africa in time for a wet and chilly first day at the Craven meeting.

- Greg Wood

Weather-wise, it felt more like Plumpton in January than the home of Flat racing on the first afternoon of a new campaign.

But the conditions could not dampen the sense of opening-day anticipation as the first of 2025's Guineas hopefuls went to post for their Classic trials on the Rowley Mile, before a potential tilt at racing immortality back here in less than three weeks.

The Craven meeting is all about the future, from the unraced juveniles breezing alongside the track in the morning before going under the hammer at Tattersalls a few hours later to the potential Group One winners blowing away the winter cobwebs on a course that staged the first race run under an official set of rules all the way back in 1666.