Bookings open for Great British Racing’s National Racehorse Week

Originally the brainchild of trainer Richard Phillips, 91 yards have signed up to participate this year including Nicky Henderson, Charlie & Mark Johnston, Kim Bailey and David Pipe. In addition to training yards, nine studs and ten retraining centres will welcome visitors helping to showcase the full life of horses bred for racing. New participants for 2024 include Shadwell and the National Stud plus Godolphin’s Lifetime Care rehoming centre.

Racehorse trainer Kim Bailey commented: “I’m a great believer that racing yards should open their doors to the public, and National Racehorse Week provides us with a golden opportunity to push the curtains aside and let people see what lies behind. It’s been a huge success for racing and gets bigger and better every year. Our open day has grown from 40 people visiting in our first year to over 300 people last September.”

Yards taking part provide small and intimate 25-person events through to huge open days for between 500-800 people hosted by trainers including Rebecca Menzies, Olly Murphy and Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero.

As in other years, National Racehorse Week will be bookended by open days taking place in Malton, North Yorkshire, on 8 September and The Henry Cecil Open Weekend in Newmarket on 21 and 22 September bringing the total number of locations on offer to the public during that period to 132. These events are ticketed with funds donated to Racing Welfare (Malton and Newmarket events) and the Newmarket Housing Trust (Newmarket events).

Since its inception in 2021, and including this year, National Racehorse Week has created over 48,000 free places for people to experience the lives of racehorses, get closer to the Thoroughbred, and meet the people who dedicate their lives to their care and welfare.

Gabi Whitfield, Head of Welfare Communications, Great British Racing commented: “There is no other top-tier sport that opens its doors for free to the public the way racing does with National Racehorse Week. It’s an incredible opportunity for people to get close, at scale, to the Thoroughbred. And we see, first-hand, the positive impact this has on people’s opinion of welfare in racing. Seeing is believing. Coupled with the ongoing work of the sport’s Horse Welfare Board and the recently-launched welfare campaign HorsePWR, British racing continues to take big strides forward in building trust and engagement with the public.”

National Racehorse Week is more than just open days. The annual event gives racing the opportunity to reach outside of yards and get closer to the community and people who might never have even seen a horse in real life. Over the week, racehorses will be taken out to schools, hospitals, charities, and community groups as well as bespoke visits organised at training centres. To date this work has seen National Racehorse Week connect with an additional 4,000 people outside of the public open days. And this year the ambition is to deliver 60 community events adding an extra 3,500 people to this total.

Tansy Challis, Chief Executive at the Racing Foundation, said: “The Racing Foundation has funded National Racehorse Week since its inception and is delighted to once again be funding the event for a third year with support from the Racing Post and Godolphin. It demonstrates a true collaborative effort from across the industry to showcase the welfare of racehorses.

“By funding the community outreach and engagement element of the event, we are able to connect those who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience the magic of the racehorse with our sport, many for the first time.

“We look forward to schools, charities, urban equestrian centres and community groups getting involved in 2024 to celebrate National Racehorse Week and share the wonderful experiences our industry has to offer to the public.”

Run by Great British Racing, with principal funding from The Racing Foundation (with support from the Racing Post and Godolphin) and The Horserace Betting Levy Board, National Racehorse Week is the sport’s biggest campaign to bring people across Britain behind the scenes of racing. Research conducted after last year’s event showed the impact the experience has on attendees with 92% of people who were new to racing saying their opinion had been positively changed about the welfare of horses, and 94% of all attendees saying they had a positive impression of racing because of their visit.

Racehorse trainer Dave Loughnane explained: “I had one person come to an open day admitting they’d arrived with quite a negative opinion on the sport, which we helped change. Upon leaving, the individual said that if she met anyone in the future with a negative outlook, she’d tell them to come and experience what we do. That’s what matters most. If someone walks away and tells five people and they tell five more people, it’s spreading the word.”

Racehorse trainer Oliver Greenall added: “National Racehorse Week brings a host of benefits to our industry. It gets people involved and interested to learn more. It’s also about connecting with the young people and creating new fans. We had over 120 youngsters attend last year, some who’ve never been up close to a horse. If you get people interested at a young age, it could spark an interest for life.”