What’s On: The game is on at Newmarket’s National Horseracing Museum

Think you can crack any escape room? Or win every board game? Try your hand at Newmarket’s National Horseracing Museum, writes Angela Youngman

Drinking games, Andrew Lloyd Webber, an escape room and chess-style pieces make an unusual combination – but this is exactly what you can experience this summer in Newmarket.

More than 50 rare and antique horseracing games have been loaned to the National Horseracing Museum by a private collector for a very unusual display. Believed to be the largest exhibition of its kind ever opened to the public, Horseplay includes the opportunity to actually try out some of these games.

Escalado is one, complete with a vibrating track that creates unexpected challenges. Or you can don racing colours, roll a dice and wind your way round tables along a floor-based game which might lead you to the winners’ podium for a photograph.

The rarest games, such as hand-cranked wooden races dating from 1880 and a Japanese game fitting inside a painted apple, are kept safely in display cases. Discover how boardgame packaging has changed over the years, games promoting film stars like Charlie Chaplin, and even one created by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

There are games of chance and betting games such as Vinyl Finish, dating from the 1960s, combining a vinyl record with race commentary, as well as games with a comedy element such as Three Men on a Horse. Based on a Warner Brothers film, players try to complete the course without losing riders.

Unfortunately, there are hazards to overcome. Land on the wrong spot and your horse may decide to polish his hooves or chase a horse through woods, throwing a rider off. Alternatively, he might just decide to have a chat to a sparrow, giving the opportunity for a rider to get on board.

Having played around the exhibition, there is still more on offer. Book an escape room session and become agents trying to solve a gambling crime. With the clock constantly ticking down, solve intricate puzzles and challenges to not only solve the crime but also collect money along the way. Will you keep the money or gamble it away at the end?

During the summer, there are also race nights, creative activities, children’s trails and opportunities to watch equine games in the arena. Board game mornings are being held regularly throughout the year and the museum is in the process of setting up a complex interactive game trail involving specially created wooden carvings around Newmarket.

Entry to Horseplay is included in the NHRM entry fee. See nhrm.co.uk/events/horseplay-a-racing-games-exhibition