'You don't want to be the one who lets the place down' - inside Newmarket’s very own Russian empire

If Prince Dimitry Soltykoff had developed a hankering for Newmarket in this century instead of the 19th, then his life might have panned out very differently.

In the 2020s, he'd likely have left his native Russia with one of Putin's henchmen on his trail, arriving in Suffolk to find all his considerable assets frozen and the ownership of a small racing empire beyond his meagre budget.

Back in the 1850s, however, things were rather less bleak for the pre-Soviet era ruling classes. Yes, the Russians had had their noses bloodied by an Anglo-French-Ottoman alliance in the Crimean War, and Tsar Nicholas I was no doubt displeased, but the revolution was 60 years away, a prince was still a prince and on the British turf there were no hard feelings, old chap.