WORKING together. Two simple words. But such a powerful concept.

And, I believe, the power behind those words represents the future prosperity of our industry.

If we don’t work together to solve our issues (which are remarkably the same globally), there are strong reasons to believe that we won’t have an industry to delight, stimulate and inspire for future generations.

For those who don’t know me, I founded Thoroughbred Industry Careers (TIC) in 2019 – with enormous help from Godolphin and many others in the racing and breeding world – as I saw a real need in Australia to proactively and strategically turn the tide on a declining workforce.

Too many in Australia have little or no connection with the thoroughbred and do not realise that fulfilling careers are available and the next generation coming through have little or zero awareness of horse racing. And that is despite the fact we have extraordinary levels of horse ownership and more than 80,000 people working alongside our thoroughbreds.

Here’s how big the problem is: I did a focus group with a secondary school’s equestrian team of 15 students, and only one person could name anything to do with horse racing. A girl put her hand up and said: “I’ve heard of Winx”. Others all stared at me blankly.

No wonder everyone’s saying they can’t get staff, as even young people who ride horses don’t know the thoroughbred industry exists as a career or as a sport.

12-month course

So, in 2019 Thoroughbred Industry Careers launched a 12-month course that aimed to educate young people on both the breeding and racing sides to the industry and out of that it created track riders, jockeys, stable and stud staff and even media out of school-leavers, a lot of whom had little or no previous experience with horses.

So far, so good. We were delighted to have gone some way to creating our own ‘British Racing School’.

Then disaster: in mid-2022, for economic and political reasons, we lost our “training centre” when the New South Wales state government closed the Richmond equine courses, which hosted the core ‘work safe’ training our students.

Suddenly we were in limbo and there is no alternative to what Richmond offered two years on – to be clear, that is face to face training with thoroughbreds, like the training that is offered at the British Racing School or with RACE in Ireland.

I came very close to giving up everything. Only the intervention of key figures and unwavering support from John Messara, Vin Cox and Chris Waller’s Charlie Duckworth kept me on track.

Pony racing bridge

One small point of comfort was that we had been planning pony racing as a bridge from childhood to the school-leaver years.

So we just went hard at that. And we’ve enjoyed success with Season One now finished and Season Two around the corner.

Long term secure funding remains an issue, always. Doing anything nationally in Australia, puts you in no man’s land politically, so every year, cap in hand, we have to raise the funds to implement our initiatives.

Thanks to the newly launched ‘Women in Racing Awards’ initiated by Katie Page of Magic Millions and TAB, winning the inaugural award, has afforded me to recently conduct an inspiring mini tour of England, Ireland and France, with the aim of ensuring best practice in our pony racing.

But beyond that, my time in Europe has reminded me how broadly, we all face the same challenges.

And that is why it was such a breath of fresh air to meet Diana Cooper, of Godolphin, when I was planning the launch of TIC. I have been able to draw upon the wisdom and experience of so many like-minded souls, but as soon as I met Diana, it was clear we saw things in the same light.

This was her “space” and both then and now we find it difficult to stop talking about all the possibilities the industry presents.

Education initiatives

Back then, Godolphin sponsored me to visit the UK and Ireland to review all the education initiatives that were already in place. These countries are well ahead of what is on offer in Australia.

Next, Godolphin arranged for so many industry players to meet and from that emerged Together for Racing International (TfRI). This was clearly what we needed, being able to exchange views with people from all over the world. And what a delight to discover we were all on the same page.

We all have the same issues, so we could share ideas and learn from initiatives we were working on.

Fast forward a few years and we all met in Deauville as a much more cohesive and vibrant TfRI!

So truly joined-up care for thoroughbreds and the people who work with them really is coming together, and that is made all the easier thanks to technology.

This meeting of minds from different racing precincts and how we can learn from one another is truly humbling. What has been created is a global think tank. And I have to say that so much of this is emerging thanks to Godolphin.

Bringing people together

Without Godolphin, the danger is that each country would be working in a silo. Diana is so brilliant at bringing people together and ensuring that ideas are shared and, crucially, that things happen.

But while technology fuels our collaboration, it is the welfare of horses and the people who tend to them that lies at the heart of what we do.

It is vital to have good people looking after our horses because the horses’ well-being is everything. That’s the very essence of our social licence.

The industry has to realise we’re as much in the horse business as we’re in the people business.

People define our industry – robots or AI are never going to take care of our racehorses. And because it’s always going to be a people-heavy industry, we have to invest in people, their education and welfare.

And while at TIC we have been working exclusively with children and young adults, those educational needs never end, no matter how old you are.

Which is why any support, such as Godolphin’s Flying Start programme, the excellent Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards and other ongoing initiatives that celebrate our people, should be applauded.

Connections

For the next generation though, making those connections to horse racing is everything. First, we have to ensure in Australia that children and their parents have heard about us. So, we’ve run taster days and we’ve hosted around 350 kids from 77 pony clubs right across the country in the last 12 months.

We give them an illustrated booklet outlining the history of horse racing, how we look after our horses, what happens to them after racing, plus all the different careers available – all the time making a connection with the thoroughbred world. Any sort of engagement with our world and we’re winning. What we are trying to do is transfer the love and passion we all experienced the first time we connected with racing. It’s showing them, it’s lifting up the curtain and saying, here it is. This is horse heaven. This is where it all happens.