From Australia to Norway, via York and Newbury – it's seven-furlong week

National Allotment week and Afternoon Tea week are approaching an end and British Lamb Week and Migraine Awareness Week are on their way, but this is the time for another deserving cause.

The next eight days are devoted to a neglected minority, a group forgotten despite their valiant efforts – horses who specialise at seven furlongs.

Who remembers those poor unfortunates who are not quite quick enough to grab six-furlong glory in a July Cup or a Diamond Jubilee Stakes and don't stay well enough for mile honours in a Sussex or a Queen Elizabeth II?

Social media canvassing of aficionados' views on the best seven-furlong horse threw up many a Kingman, Moonlight Cloud or even Frankel, who all won at the trip, but few true out-and-out specialists since, perhaps, Warningford at the turn of the century – or maybe Decorated Hero or Salse before that.

But this is the week of all weeks for those with the propensity that dare not speak its name.

Spoilt for choice

Thanks to the quirks of the Pattern, there is the £150,000 Betfred Hungerford Stakes at Newbury on Saturday and the £175,000 Sky Bet City of York Stakes on the Knavesmire on Friday.

The purse is 600,000 for the Polar Cup two days after that – though that is Krone as the race is at Ovrevoll in Norway and run over a cricket pitch and a half short of seven furlongs – and there is £60,000 on the line in the Weatherbys Bank Supreme Stakes at Goodwood the same afternoon.

Staging one Group 2 race and three Group 3s at the same specialist trip, all aimed at three-year-olds and up, within eight days, would appear the kind of planning that makes the Charge Of The Light Brigade look a masterstroke.

Yet it appears to have had little impact on the Hungerford, which has not attracted a field bigger than this year's since 2004.

It was the obvious race for David Simcock to choose for Breton Rock, who has done all his winning at this trip since he was two, including in this contest three years ago.

He belied his seven years and a 50-1 starting price by scoring seven-furlong victory number eight in the Lennox Stakes at Goodwood, yet number nine will be trickier under a 3lb penalty, reopposed by Librisa Breeze, who was hampered on three different occasions in the last two furlongs yet was still beaten only a little over three lengths.

Leger hopes on trial

Of course, seven-furlong horses can seem positive supermodels compared to racing's modern-day Cinderellas, those unglamorous enough to be aimed at a St Leger – for which there are trials on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Whether the Roger Varian-trained Defoe is named after the Bournemouth striker or the author of Robinson Crusoe, there is no doubt he's a highly promising colt, unbeaten in three runs this year and an authoritative winner of the Glasgow Stakes at Hamilton last month.

He'll be one of the favourites for Doncaster if he can make it four out of four in the Betfred Geoffrey Freer Stakes, taking on Coronation Cup second Frontiersman.

That rival is one of three Godolphin have entered in next month's Irish St Leger at the Curragh, which welcomes back Order Of St George in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger Trial.

The Gold Cup runner-up won this at 2-11 last year but backers will be a shade warier 12 months on, given he was beaten at 1-7 in the Irish St Leger itself – by Wicklow Brave, who is in the field once again.

Track knowledge the key

If it's true specialists you want, turn to the William Hill Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon, whose undulations unsettle many a sprinter.

Those with proven track form have dominated of late and course-and-distance winners have taken this six times in the last nine years, filling the first four places last season.

That still leaves seven candidates from which to choose the winner, who will be honoured with a hand-made floral gala as the course brings a touch of Breeders' Cup razzamatazz to North Yorkshire.

Arrogate was the one being garlanded after the big race at Santa Anita last autumn, and after a shock defeat he bids to get his campaign back on track in the TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

That will be around 19 and a half hours after Australian wondermare Winx seeks an 18th win in a row in the Bob Ingham Warwick Stakes at Randwick.

That, as it happens, is a seven-furlong event, and her trademark flying finish would be highly appropriate on what is National Aviation Day, marking the birthdate of flight pioneer Orville Wright.

Saturday cards and betting