Newmarket Racecourse, Suffolk, England

The wave-shaped roof of the Rowley Mile grandstand under a May evening sky in 2015. Newmarket has been the headquarters of British racing since Charles II made the town his sporting retreat, and the Rowley Mile takes its name from his favorite horse, Old Rowley. Its straight, wide-open course stages the season's first classics each spring: the 2,000 Guineas, first run in 1809, and the 1,000 Guineas, first run in 1814. In summer the action moves to the neighboring July Course.