Seven Days: R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Respect. It really is that simple. If we want to be involved with horses in sport we must treat those animals who give us either our pleasure or livelihood – or both – with decency and dignity.

There are rogue elements, of course, but it is how the majority of people involved in horseracing feel and act, be they breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys or fans. Perhaps the most touching embodiment of this was witnessed during a recent visit to Sapporo racecourse in Japan, where there is a shrine alongside the parade ring.

I watched as various racegoers dropped a coin in the box by the shrine and stood solemnly, bowing their heads in apparent prayer. I asked my friend Mariko whether the shrine was for a particular horse. “It is for all the racehorses,” she said. “To pray for the horses' safety and health.”

I didn't grow up in a racing family but ended up drifting to this job eventually with a combined love of horses and writing. I appreciate that not everyone loves racing for the same reason. For some it starts with a 50p bet with a grandparent, and that's great, because racing needs everyone to play their part.

For me, though, it started with the horses and it will end with the horses, and in between I will never tire of seeing as many of the good ones as often as it is possible. In that regard, the trip to Southwell on Friday was hugely enjoyable, and in some ways even better than an actual race day. We may have learnt almost nothing of how well suited City Of Troy will be to a dirt track, or more crucially to the kickback on that surface. But we do at least know that he is fit and well and has continued to develop physically – as one would expect of a three-year-old – as the season has progressed and he has continued to train and race.

It is fortunate for those of us in England that he has made all bar one of his racing starts here, but not everyone who has wanted to has had the chance to see him in racing action. A couple of people I got chatting to at Southwell on Friday were seeing him in the flesh for the first time, and for free. How fantastic.

City Of Troy won't be everyone's favourite, but if you follow the sport and can't appreciate a colt who has won four Group 1s including, crucially, the Derby, then perhaps it's not the game for you after all.

Those who did turn out in Nottinghamshire on Friday afternoon clapped City Of Troy all the way down the straight, and that kind of response – that respect – towards horses always brings a bit of a tear to my eye. Sure, it may have been nothing much more than a show gallop in the company of lesser stable-mates but I know I won't forget that elevation in his stride, and the joy his presence gave the onlookers, including this one. Just as I won't forget him proving me wrong after feeling a bit ho-hum when watching him in the parade ring for the Dewhurst last year. But he somehow manages to turn from the ordinary to the extraordinary when let loose with Ryan Moore, and his exuberant flying change half a furlong from the line that day is also burned into memory.

While Twitter used to be fun for racing fans, its Musk rebranding now puts the X into toxic, as exemplified by the reaction from some to the City Of Troy public gallop. My mum would have been 80 today and she used to say, 'If you can't say anything nice, better not to say anything at all.' She wouldn't have enjoyed social media.

The cribbing of the day as a glorified PR stunt rather misses the point. What this sport needs is positive PR, and one of the best horses in the world appearing on a quiet Friday afternoon, with the gates of the racecourse thrown open to all comers for free is as almost as good as it gets. Then there was the bonus of Ryan Moore and Aidan O'Brien taking plenty of time after the exercise to fulfil autograph and photograph requests for all those lining the paddock rails. This gallop day was hugely successful PR, not just for Coolmore, but for the accommodating team at Southwell and for racing itself. Can you imagine something similar happening in football, the only sport in Britain with a higher attendance rate than racing?

There have been many wonderful opportunities for people who follow the sport in Britain to get close to the stars beyond the racecourse in recent weeks. National Racehorse Week, the brainchild of trainer Richard Phillips, is now in its sixth year and in 2024 more than 100 racing yards and studs took part in open days, welcoming thousands through their gates.

This last weekend was the Henry Cecil Open Weekend in Newmarket, which had the extra attraction of John and Thady Gosden's Clarehaven Stables being open for the first time. The early birds could catch another of this season's top three-year-olds, Economics (GB), in action on Warren Hill before the stables opened on Sunday morning for a three-hour stretch. But that was only one aspect of a weekend-long programme of events which included Stradivarius (Ire) and Battaash (Ire) being on show at the National Stud and National Horseracing Museum respectively, a showjumping competition featuring racing personalities, a hotly-contested dog show won once again by William Jarvis's labrador, and showing classes for retrained racehorses.

All these types of events offer a golden opportunity for fans to get close to the stars of the show and for racing to showcase what is generally the norm in the day-to-day lives of racehorses: top-class care. It should go without saying that you'll get the best out of a horse by putting the best into a horse, and that starts with how they are treated by those charged with looking after them. We need to show people how well we do that.

Ho, Ho, Ho

It is unusual to find Con Marnane as the breeder rather than the consignor of a group-winning breeze-up horse, but that was the role 'King Con' played in Powerful Glory (Ire). The winner of the G2 Mill Reef Stakes represents that familiar triumvirate of Richard Fahey, Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum and agent Richard Brown, who were all previously involved in the treble Group 1 winner Perfect Power (Ire) (Ardad {Ire}).

The latter was bred by Tally-Ho Stud, who also bred his Overbury-based sire, and the Tally-Ho team played a significant role in the first three home in Saturday's Mill Reef. Powerful Glory's sire Cotai Glory (GB) stands at the stud, as does his damsire Kodiac (GB). The O'Callaghan family pinhooked the colt as a foal and offered him at the Goffs UK Breeze-up in April.

The John Ryan-trained runner-up La Bellota (Ire) is by another Tally-Ho stallion, Mehmas (Ire), and was bred at the farm and later sold at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-up. Meanwhile the third horse home, Billboard Star (GB) (Advertise {GB}), may have been a loss-maker for Tally-Ho when pinhooked from foal to yearling, but he has vindicated their judgement nonetheless by winning and twice finishing placed at Group 2 level for Eve Johnson Houghton.

Roheryn's Gone Global

The 13-year-old Galileo (Ire) mare Roheryn (Ire) is putting in a bold bid for broodmare of the year honours while compiling quite an international reputation. No fewer than four of her offspring have won already this season, in four different countries, with five-year-old Buckaroo (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) leading the pack following his victory in Saturday's G1 Underwood Stakes.

The longevity of the mare's runners is noteworthy. Her first foal, Kihavah (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), is now seven and he too won on Saturday, in Scotland, beating another old warrior in Euchen Glen (GB) (Authorized {Ire}) by three and a half lengths when claiming his eighth in the Millar Callaghan 25th Anniversary Handicap at Ayr.

The four-year-old Middle Earth (GB) (Roaring Lion) won the G3 Aston Park Stakes in May and was third in the G2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot before leaving the Gosdens to join his co-owner Ciaron Maher's stable in Australia in a planned raid on the Melbourne Cup.

Meanwhile the three-year-old filly Siege Of Troy (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) won a Curragh maiden in June for Johnny Murtagh and picked up some black type in America when third in the Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational at Kentucky Downs.

Some of the sires represented in Roheryn's matings drop a big hint that the mare, whose offspring are bred under the name of The Roheryn Partnership, is owned by a group involving Qatar Bloodstock, for whom she herself won the Listed King George V Cup, and is based at Tweenhills. The mare is a daughter of the 2005 G3 Albany Stakes winner La Chunga (More Than Ready).

Signing Off

This column can't sign off this week without acknowledging two retiring heroes: Franny Norton and Not So Sleepy (GB). That Norton, 54, was able to hang up his saddle after a winning treble at his beloved Chester was a proper Hollywood ending to a 36-year riding career.

We don't see many horses of Not So Sleepy's ilk these days. The son of Beat Hollow (GB), bred by his owners Lord and Lady Blyth, has been a force to be reckoned with, on the Flat and over hurdles, and indeed for the riders who had to curb his enthusiasm on the gallops each morning.

In 69 starts, from a winning debut at two to a successful swansong at 12, he won a dozen races, including the G1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle twice and the Listed Dee Stakes, with a haul of more than £600,000 in prize-money. He will be missed, as will Franny Norton.