National Racehorse Week, a unique chance to go behind the scenes of the Sport of Kings
National Racehorse Week returns for the fourth consecutive year next month, in a bid ‘to show the public what life as a racehorse is really like’.


National Racehorse Week returns for the fourth consecutive year next month, in a bid ‘to show the public what life as a racehorse is really like’.
Some 132 venues across the UK, including nine studs, 10 retraining centres and 91 yards, such as Nicky Henderson’s in Lambourne, Berkshire, and Charlie and Mark Johnston’s in Middleham, North Yorkshire, will host events from intimate tours to open days for up to 800 people. There will be farrier, equine swimming and schooling demonstrations; race-horses will also be taken to visit schools, hospitals, charities and community groups.
‘There is no other top-tier sport that opens its doors for free to the public the way racing does with National Racehorse Week,’ says Gabi Whitfield, head of welfare communications at Great British Racing, which runs the event, funded by The Racing Foundation (with support from the Racing Post and Godolphin) and The Horserace Betting Levy Board.
‘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… 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.’
‘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,’ adds racehorse trainer Dave Loughnane.
‘Upon leaving, she said if she met anyone in the future with a negative outlook, she’d tell them to come and experience what we do.’
National Racehorse Week runs from September 7–15 — www.nationalracehorseweek.uk.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Credit: Equine Journeys: The British Horse World by Hossein Amirsadeghi
Sporting Life: 10 majestic images that give a unique perspective on the immutable bond between Man and Horse
A new book sheds a wonderful light on the unique relationship that people have with their horses.
Credit: Getty
Looking back at the Grand National, decade by decade
To mark 180 years since the first running of the Grand National, Kate Green charts the decade-by-decade history of the
Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.
-
The century-old enamelling technique used to create Van Cleef's lucky ladybird brooch — which has something in common with Country Life
The technique used in the jeweller's Geneva workshop has been put to good use in its latest creation.
By Hetty Lintell Published
-
‘The best sleep in the sky’: What it’s like to fly in United’s Polaris cabin, approved by American icon Martha Stewart
United’s Business Class cabin goes by the name Polaris and Martha Stewart is a fan. So, how does it fare?
By Rosie Paterson Published