Racing Home

Today is the start of Royal Ascot 2024! One of our guests today is making his Royal Ascot presenting debut this week, and we’re delighted to bring you this podcast in a week women in racing from across the world are being showcased and celebrated once again. We’ve talked a lot about parents in this series, particularly mothers, and we’ve heard from a fathers too. But if we want to create a working landscape where people are all pulling in the same direction, we need to look at things from the perspective of a younger generation, in particular young men. They are the sons, brothers, nephews and friends of women in the racing industry now, and they’re the fathers of the future. What they hear, what they think and what they do in their lives matters. I’m joined to dig into this topic by Callum Helliwell, a reporter for Sky Sports Racing who it’s fair to say is part of the “younger generation” and as you’ll hear is incredibly insightful, wise and eloquent on this subject, and Lyndon Roberts, the Head of Inclusion at the British Horseracing Authority, who’s worked in various sports for over 10 years and is a father himself.   Useful linksCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

We've been very fortunate with Racing Home to have support from numerous folk across the industry, and we're welcoming two of them - with very different roles in racing, it must be said - to the podcast today. We were going to call this episode 'saints and sinners' but I think 'from grassroots to the boardroom' fits a little better. A huge thank to both my guests today for everything they're doing in support of racing's workforce and family life, it's much appreciate. Simon Bailey is the National Chaplain to Horseracing. He lives with his family in Newmarket and is on the ground there daily, supporting those who work in racing, and people who have previously. Simon is a listening ear, a place to turn in times of need and someone with great knowledge of who can help, even if he can't. He's also one of the new team of Grassroots Ambassadors we've got here at Racing Home. Ed Nicholson is pretty senior at Kindred, the parent company of Unibet - he's the Head of Racing Communications and Sponsorship in case you're interested. You'll hear that Ed's interest in equality in the sport goes back a long way, when he wrote a research piece back in the early 90s whilst at university. Useful linksRead about Simon's work on the Racing Welfare website hereRead about Kindred's support of mental health and wellbeing in racingCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

If my guest in our last episode needed very little introduction - that was Julie Harrington, the CEO of the BHA, in case you haven’t listened - then today’s is no exception to that rule either. Nick Luck is one of the nation’s most recognisable racing broadcasters. Having been a mainstay of Channel 4 Racing previously, he’s also a stalwart of Racing TV, NBC’s Breeder’s Cup coverage in the US and a nine-time winner of the Horserace Writers and Photographers Broadcaster of the Year Award. Nick has a wonderfully talented wife - classical singer, Laura - and they have 3 daughters aged 13, 9 and 5. Their youngest, Xanthe, has cystic fibrosis. Nick is a very busy father who travels a lot, and with a child with a chronic illness there are some additional challenges in their family too, all of which provided a fascinating conversation. Useful linksIf you'd like more info on cystic fibrosis, then you can find plenty here from the Cystic Fibrosis TrustFollow Nick on Twitter here and Instagram hereCheck out Luck on Sunday on Racing TVCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

My guest today is someone that you may well have heard of, and I’m really grateful to her for giving up her very precious and very busy time to join me for a podcast recording. Julie Harrington is the CEO of the British Horseracing Authority, as well as a mother to her daughter Sarah. Julie became a mum very young - she was still at school in fact - but built her career regardless, making her way through the brewing industry, horseracing and football at the FA before becoming the CEO of British Cycling, from where she joined the BHA in 2021. I’ve had the good fortune to chat to Julie about the trajectory of her career previously and there’s a link here if you want to watch that one, but here we discussed a whole range of topics to do with work and family. Useful linksWatch the Women in Racing Careering Ahead discussion with Julie about her working lifeRead about Julie as CEO of the BHA on their websiteCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

It’s been a while since we released our chat with Alice Plunkett and Leanne Pipe, but it’s now 2023 and we are back for Season 2 of Racing Home! The first phase of the project went really well, and we’re delighted to have received support and funding for the next stage from the Racing Foundation and Kindred Group, which will allow the team to embark on further research and roll out the groundbreaking physiotherapy programme produced in conjunction with the Injured Jockeys Fund and Racing Welfare. Can’t wait.We’ve talked to a whole host of professionals across horseracing to bring you a range of persectives - there’s Lizzie Kelly on the jockey front, Claire Kübler from a trainers perspective, Leo Powell from the Irish Field, and a whole heap more. Don’t forget to listen then share the series with friends or anyone you know that might find it useful and interesting. We’d appreciate it.My first guest for Season 2 is Amy Bannister Bell, a breeder, backer, producer of horses, instructor, coach and mother to a sibling group of three adopted children with her partner Alice. Useful linksFollow Amy on Facebook Have a look at her coaching Instagram pageCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

We’re bringing down the curtain on Racing Home 2022 with a pair of absolutely cracking women today, as we discuss navigating your role in life, whether that’s as a mother, a wife, a single parent or someone without kids, someone who works or someone who doesn’t, and how you find satisfaction in the life that you’ve carved out. How do you tread the path that others expect of you, and that you expect of yourself? In the case of my two guests today, part of that role is as “the wife” (or “the bloody wife” as Alice neatly calls it) to a successful man. Alice Plunkett will need no introduction to most of you, as she graces our television sets most weekends through the winter as part of the team at ITV Racing. Al remains the only woman to have ridden round Badminton Horse Trials and the national fences at Aintree, and she has 4 children aged 8, 10, 16 and 17. Her husband is a guy who in her words is “really good at jumping jumps” - that’s Olympic three day eventer William Fox Pitt - and they’ve got 28 boxes at home, with youngstock, ponies, hunters and top class eventers on the farm, as well as a farming business, holiday lets and working pupils from across the globe living on site.Leanne Pipe has worked in racing for almost thirty years and is a prominent part of the operation at Pond House in Somerset, the home of previous winners of the Grand National, Paddy Power Gold Cup, the Hennessy Gold Cup and multiple races at the Cheltenham festival. Leanne is married to trainer David Pipe, and together they have 3 children aged 6, 10 and 12, as well as around 90 horses in training and 45 staff in their team. It’s busy.Alice recently went down to Pond House with a camera crew from ITV Racing to feature Leanne and the team there, particularly highlighting the work of the brilliant women who’ve been at the yard for 20 years or more. Watch the video here!Useful linksFollow Alice on Twitter, and the ITV Racing teamFollow Leanne and David on TwitterCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

One the wonderful surprises about this podcast and the Racing Home project is the number of people who’ve said to us that the topics and ideas we’ve been discussing and highlighting are now much more front and centre of their thoughts and conversations at work than they ever have been before, and that they’re really trying to implement change within their small sphere of the racing bubble. If you’re a man of a certain age with grown up children like Stephen Padgett, or a childfree running-loving thirty-something woman like Susannah Gill, then the realities and pressures of a lot of the topics we’ve covered in the podcast aren’t necessarily crossing your mind on a daily basis. Although as you’ll hear, that’s all about the change for Susannah…Suz and Stephen have kindly joined me today, and I am really grateful to both of them for their absolute honesty on this topic. You’ll hear Stephen talk openly about how he never dealt with his only children’s nappies, and how he does much more as a grandfather than he did when his kids were little, and Susannah on how running and travel have previously been much higher priorities for her than starting a family.  But mainly, we’re talking about change. Changes in thoughts, actions and attitudes - both their own and those of the people around them. I’ll let Suz introduce herself first.Useful linksCheck out the National Horseracing College website here, and the Tote website here!Follow Stephen on TwitterFollow Susannah on TwitterCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

We’ve talked a lot in previous episodes of the podcast about parenthood, work, the juggle and the balance of making it ALL fit together in life, however you choose to live it. But today I’ve got the pleasure of welcoming two fantastic women to talk about the latter end of women’s careers, and the spectre facing most of us at some point in our forties, fifties or beyond: the menopause.Like periods, the menopause just used to fall under the bracket of “women’s issues” which were skirted around in the office and often mumbled about with embarrassment and shame. 14 million working days lost annually due to menopause-related symptoms. 63% women report being adversely affected at work by their experiences of the menopause, and 1 in 4 women consider leaving their jobs whilst going through it. Now, in part thanks to Davina McCall, Meg Matthews and a slew of other women holding conversations on menopause and being open about their experiences, change is coming, and it’s happening fast. I’m joined today to chat about this by Emma Tranter of Salisbury Racecourse, and Suzanne Homewood, a non-exec director at British Dressage and Racing Home supporter. Useful linksFollow Salisbury Racecourse on Twitter and check out their website hereWatch Davina McCall's Channel 4 series on the menopause hereListen to the award-winning menopause podcast 'Effin Hormones and award-nominated podcast The Happy Menopause Check out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

We’ve got two senior women on the corporate and governance side of racing with us today, from the legal and HR elements of the industry. This chat was going to cover a bit about the situation in other sports and other industries, and a bit about their respective careers, but instead it became a wide-ranging conversation covering everything from not making the tea in the boardroom, to miscarriage, to menopause, and as a little trigger warning, we do go into some of this in detail. So I’m delighted that today I’m joined by Catherine Beloff and Jayne Greenman. Catherine is the Director of Legal, Governance and Business Partners at the British Horseracing Authority. She joined the BHA in 2015 and has been a director since 2016. Catherine has a son, Benjamin, who’s 8, and a daughter, Lara who was born just prior to the pandemic starting, and is now 2 ½.Jayne is the Director of HR at Arena Racing Company. She joined Northern Racing in 2009, and became a director in 2012. Jayne has been a single parent since 2021, and has two children - a son, Hector, who’s now 10, and a daughter, Indiana, who’s 6. Useful linksFollow Jayne on TwitterWatch Davina McCall's Channel 4 series on the menopause hereCheck out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!

Next week sees the official launch of the Racing Home project at Kempton Racecourse where we’ll be talking - amongst other things - about a hugely exciting revolutionary new project designed by Racing Home in conjunction with the Injured Jockeys Fund and National Association Of Racing Staff to give proper, practical help to women in the industry. I’m delighted to be joined today by two women who’ve been deeply involved in the development of this pilot, Dominique Tortice and Dr. Anna-Louise Mackinnon. Dom has worked in racing for 20 years, 11 of which have been in Newmarket. She’s been with the National Association Of Racing Staff for 4 years, and is the project assistant for their education programme, working on upskilling racing staff to help them progress inside the industry, or to move on to further employment elsewhere if desired. Dom has two teenage sons aged 15 and 13 and has been a single parent for 13 years. Dr. Anna-Louise Mackinnon is a Consultant in sport and exercise medicine for Injured Jockeys Fund and the British Equestrian Federation as well as practising within the NHS. Having previously ridden out for Andrew Balding and competed in a charity race, Anna-Louise heads up the medical team for the IJF, providing a point of contact for questions from physios, nutritionists, dietitians, psychologists, sport & exercise consultants, liaison teams. She’s a hugely experienced sports medicine doctor and we’re thrilled to have her as part of the Racing Home team. Useful linksEmail Dom at DominiqueTortice@naors.co.uk to find out more about the pilot project and get involvedAnna-Louise mentioned This Mum Runs and the Active Pregnancy Foundation, both of which have great info and resources for pregnant women Check out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing hereAnd finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!