The past year has seen America begin to confront a legacy of racial injustice older than the country itself. Some corresponding discussion about the need for change has taken place in U.S. racing. Has the Stateside call to increase representation of historically marginalized communities in the sport resonated across the Pond? Carly Silver examined the progress and obstacles faced in UK racing and how the industry is working to address it.
2020 and onwards
In fall 2020, sports presenter Rishi Persad participated in an important Sky Sports discussion. The conversation centered on prejudice in British racing and this industry’s response to the global push for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and worldwide Black Lives Matter protests. For his remarks, Persad faced hostility and backlash, explaining, “It’s almost in my view [in] the sport of horseracing that there wasn’t that much interest in what was going on.”
Persad stated that he heard from a lot of people who told him they’ve never experienced racism in the sport. While he respected their points of view, he added, “I cannot tell you about your experiences because I have no idea what you felt what your experiences were, what your own particular prejudices that you may have brought to the situation may have been.
“In the same vein, I find it difficult for you to tell me that there is no problem when I’m telling you, ‘Here’s my experience when I’ve encountered issues that have been uncomfortable and incidents when I have been subjected to racist remarks and racist tones.’ So I don’t understand how they tell me their experiences and tell me that I need to listen to them and there is no problem, yet they won’t listen to what I’m saying.”
StarSports political betting analyst and sporting previewer William Kedjanyi noted the Sky Sports interview and the ongoing work of the Diversity in Racing Steering Group (DiRSG). Of the sport’s response to the calls for justice, he said, “There, I think, has been debate about it to some point, not nearly as much as there was in other sports,” citing UK soccer in particular.
He added, “Again, I’ve got to stress I don’t think there’s an inherent underlying racism there. I just think there’s a lot of people who don’t know about this issue because they’re older and they’re white and they’re middle class and they’re well insulated from it. They see it on the news but they wouldn’t feel compelled to comment.”
Beginning with the BHA
Rose Grissell is the British Horseracing Authority (BHA)’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion. Under her stewardship, many of racing’s leading organizations declared their participation in an “industry commitment” on diversity and inclusion in May 2021. This step is just one of many for Grissell and her colleagues; she also collaborates with the now-independent steering group.
Grissell recalled that research showed that LGBTQ+ individuals in racing didn’t “necessarily feel as comfortable to be out and open in other areas.” The BHA developed an e-learning module on a new training development platform, Racing to Learn. She explained, “It’s hopefully aimed to raise awareness and just encourage people to feel more comfortable talking about LGBTQ+ issues, as well as making sure that throughout everything we’re as inclusive as possible.”
In 2020, an official LGBT+ racing network called Racing With Pride was launched, as was Rainbow Laces’ Racing is Everyone’s Sport campaign.
“I think a key thing is embedding diversity and inclusion [in] multiple different forms, to be honest,” she said. “Because it’s a case of in one sense from a regulation point of view and an integrity point of view, we now have a clear reporting line called RaceWISE, with the ‘WISE’ standing for welfare, integrity, safeguarding, and equality. And so we’re trying to do more with promoting that people can report any discriminatory abuse or anything related to that.”
Aintree Clerk of the Course Sulekha Varma took part in the BHA’s British Horseracing Development Programme. She found the course and subsequent work placement invaluable and knows it will be so for other prospective industry employees.
“It’s just making the sport more open and accessible,” she commented. “But I think the non-graduate requirement is reflected in other industries, as well. I think there’s a sort of a view now that university isn’t the be-and-end-all that it was ten or 15 years ago.”
Industry-embedded issues
Kedjanyi shared that the sport’s natural insularity lends itself to not getting “the best chance to scout or to pick up the whole sense of the population”.
Accessibility is another integral issue. “Horses are stabled in rural locations in England for the obvious reason that they need space and lots of it,” he explained. The remoteness of racetracks, farms, and stable yards mean longer trips for people in cities to even visit, let alone get involved in a professional or recreational capacity.Persad opined that racks risk isolating fans due to segregation of racing enclosures by price. He wondered if the division between enclosures needs to be as stark.
Constantly being told racetrack access is limited is also discouraging. “You think about a person who comes to a racecourse as an attendee on a raceday,” Varma mused. “There’s barriers put in place all the way along, ‘Oh, you can’t go in there.’ ‘No, sorry, you can’t see that. ‘No, you’re not allowed to go into that area.’ So one of the things I think that is brilliant and I hope we’ll see coming back in the fairly near future is things like behind-the-scenes tours.”
She added, “There’s so much saying no to people that actually it’s nice to be able to say, ‘Right, come on. Come and have a look. Come and see what goes on behind the scenes.’”
Open days at trainers’ yards can have the same demystifying effect.
Horse racing’s Sport of Kings reputation puts it at a remove from many Brits. While partnerships provide increasingly more affordable ownership options, fans first need to come to a sport where they haven’t traditionally seen themselves represented.
The problem with the ‘Sport of Kings’ tag
Persad observed, “There’s respect and there’s deference, and I think sometimes that line gets a bit blurred.” He noted, “From what people tell me, and I think it’s possible to climb the ranks here, but I think that the nature of the relationship between those people in authority and the people who work for them is very, at times … it can be uncomfortable.”
“I think some of the perceived lack of accessibility is as much about class as it is about race or gender or anything else that racing is viewed,” Varma opined. “And it’s that Sport of Kings thing again, that almost, rather than sounding aspirational, that, to me, these days sounds exclusive, and I mean exclusive in a negative sense, excluding people from it.”
She added, “I think that is an image that racing really really does need to get rid of and needs to keep working to the perception of those from outside the sport, for them to know that it’s not just posh kids throwing money around.”
Kedjanyi commented, “I think what racing needs to do is to try and get a new generation of participants and fans and, if they’re both, that’s fine. But let’s be specific about this and with that. I think the change that people want to see now will come.”
The BHA is engaging regularly with inner-city riding clubs across the UK. It runs Racing to School, a curriculum-based offering to introduce young people to horseracing, and partners with Take the Rein to provide training and development for young people in careers in racing or associated fields.
Varma added, “There’s a real drive to encourage young people to consider horseracing as a career, and to understand the wide variety of roles that there are within the sport.”
From a practical point of view, also, racing needs more diverse participants. Kedjanyi observed that, in a decade or so, “many of the sports’ major players and or backers may be at the age where they’re doing other things or not around anymore, and that could be the same for the audience as well. And I would worry for racing if the audience profile hadn’t been lowered by, say five to ten years, especially, I think, in terms of people who are owners and people who are racecourse visitors because otherwise we could be in trouble.”
Covid and financial crises have also left young people with less disposable income. Making access to the track and even affordable ownership groups might be key for the industry’s future. Kedjanyi added, “The key is, how do you reach that with a message that is basically inclusive and enticing?”