Phillips looks to build on National Racehorse Week after inaugural success

Richard Phillips, the man whose brainchild snowballed into the first National Racehorse Week, believes the positive experience he and many trainer colleagues enjoyed last week provides a great platform for the event to go from strength to strength.

What Phillips described as an eight-day "celebration of the racehorse" came to an end on Sunday with the Sir Henry Cecil Newmarket Open Weekend, having featured similar events in Malton and Epsom, as well as more than 80 individual yards way from those training centres opening their doors to the public.

The germ of the idea came from conversations in the autumn of 2019 and after the intervention of the Covid pandemic, Phillips was delighted to see months of hard work come to fruition.

"From my point of view it went really well and I've been speaking to a few other trainers, all of whom have been very positive and have asked how we can do it again and how we can do it better," said Phillips, who hosted 300 people at his own Gloucestershire yard on the day that kicked off the week.

"Given there seems to be such a positive vibe I'm sure it's something we can build on. We're very lucky to be in the Cotswolds which is rather a nice place to visit but all the trainers have been absolutely fantastic. I've been really pleased with how many have engaged with it and how many want it to work."

Richard Phillips: hoping to build on the success of inaugural National Racehorse WeekCredit: Edward Whitaker

Phillips added: "We've had amazing feedback from the public. People we've never met before have emailed to say what a fantastic time they've had. I know I'm not the only trainer that has had that feedback, and other trainers have sent me examples of things they've received.

"It is a pretty good way of engaging with the public and promoting what we know we do every day, which is to look after racehorses’ welfare, every day of the year, 24 hours a day. I think it's an opportunity for everyone, including racehorse trainers and their staff, to show that point off."

Members of the public wishing to go along to a yard were required to book online and many trainers were quickly full up, with some arranging extra sessions to cope with demand.

Phillips says he was always confident there were plenty of people who would be interested to see what goes on behind the scenes in racing, both among dedicated fans and the wider public, and his own open morning backed that up.

"It was just how I visualised it," said Phillips. "We had people queueing up at nine o'clock. I'm very lucky to have John Inverdale as an owner and he very kindly offered to MC it and interview our farrier, our vet and physios.

"The horses interacted with the public as I knew they would and there was lots of positivity. We had Yogi Breisner doing a demonstration of jumping with Tom Bellamy and when someone like John says, 'That couldn't have gone much better,' you know it's gone pretty well."

John Inverdale: master of ceremonies at Richard Phillips' yardCredit: Edward Whitaker

Phillips also paid tribute to a number of organisations that helped in getting Racehorse Week off the ground at relatively short notice.

"Great British Racing did a great job and we had support from the Racing Foundation and the Sir Peter O'Sullevan Trust," he said.

"The NTF grabbed hold of it from the off and they all came together. We'll have a few discussions in the steering group and have a bit of feedback but trainers have been coming up to me at Warwick today to discuss it, saying how well it went but also how can we make it better in the future."

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