National Racehorse Week (Hannah Ali Photography)

National Racehorse Week returns in August 2026

Horse Racing

Thu July 23, 2026 · 13h ago

National Racehorse Week is soon to return for the sixth year running and bookings are now open for this year’s 10-day programme.

The nationwide event that will take place August 22-31, will see a variety of fantastic training yards, studs and aftercare centres opening their doors to the public to showcase the pure love and attention given to the thoroughbred.

This year 96 different racing venues across England, Scotland and Wales will be open to the public, offering ten days of jam-packed fun, alongside over 50 community events and three city activations held at some of England’s biggest cities and landmarks.

Following the success of the racing pop-up in Chester city centre last year, three racing-themed pop-up experiences will arrive in city centres during the week. Great British Racing who run National Racehorse Week will take its racing yard pop-up to Liverpool (August 22), London (August 26) and Portsmouth (August 29), bringing horses and racing closer to families who may never have visited a racecourse before and giving those who can’t attend a National Racehorse Week a public open day the chance to meet a racehorse.

This will be sixth year that the much-loved event has been running in a chance to educate and inspire the public surrounding racing as a sport, and to highlight the diligence and nurture provided to the athletic horses.

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Spaces are available for 15,500+ people to attend public events this year, an increase on last year's figure of 14,800 free spaces available to book. During the event there will be 111 public open days across 96 venues including:

76 training yards
11 studs
9 aftercare centres

These special events will showcase a range of activities from yard to yard, offering the chance to meet racehorses in training, as well as the much-loved stable stars who have retired. The trainers will host tours of their facilities, providing the chance to see horses exercise on the gallops, and on the treadmills and walkers.

Some yards even have purposely designed equine swimming pools; an activity that most horses enjoy and, just like humans, which offers a low-impact workout. Physiotherapists, chiropractors and farriers are an intrinsic part of any trainer’s yard, and many open days will offer demonstrations and insight into these all-important aspects of horse welfare.

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 course of the 10-day event, racehorses will be taken out to visit charities, and community groups as well as bespoke visits organised at training centres.

Some events this year include Children's Hospice Southwest who will be partnering with Newton Abbott racecourse, Box4Kids who will be visiting the British Thoroughbred Retraining Centre and over 500 young people will be heading to a special event in Birmingham with the Pony Club and Pitch2Progress.

Since its inception National Racehorse Week has delivered 65,000 free places for the public to visit studs, training yards, and retraining centres for free and put on an additional 190 community events connecting over 10,000 additional people.

Among the 96 selected venues open for the event, trainers such as Olly Murphy, Rebecca Menzies, Joe Tizzard and Tim Vaughan will be putting on large-scale events.

Murphy who is based in Warwickshire and is opening his doors to 2,000 guests this year said: "National Racehorse Week is a brilliant initiative that I am proud to have been a part of across the last four years. It is an incredibly important event for our sport, and it is great to welcome newcomers, curious minds and sport lovers to learn more year in year out. With 2025 seeing around 700 people visiting us at Warren Chase, I hope to see even more faces joining us this year.”

This year National Racehorse Week is funded by Great British Racing, Horseracing Betting Levy Board, Godolphin, The Jockey Club, Arena Racing Company, Large Independent Racecourses Group, JRA, and the Racing Foundation.

To book a place at a National Racehorse Week visit nationalracehorseweek.uk.

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