12 minute read
A brief glance at the History of The British Racing School
In memory of Rory MacDonald, for his selfless dedication to the school for 22 years
As we move into the next millennium, Rory’s plan for the school was to “establish ourselves as the industry training centre for excellence” and to provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people – an ethos and standard we still uphold two decades later.
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The BRS had a nomadic existence, moving from Great Bookham in Surrey to the Earl of March’s Goodwood Estate in 1975.
Chaired by Lord McAlpine, the Joint Racing Board Working Party (set up in 1979) purchased the BRS’ current site in Newmarket with funding from the Levy Board and generous donations from individuals.
The school is formally opened by HRH The Prince and Princess of Wales on 23rd November 1983.
1995: Seb Sanders becomes the first BRS graduate from Newmarket to become Champion Apprentice.
1977: Jimmy Bleasdale becomes the first BRS graduate to become Champion Apprentice.
Did you know...?
Every Champion Apprentice in the last 10 years trained at The British Racing School!
Our first Newmarket-based Foundation Course starts in October 1983. This course welcomed Alison Harper, who was the first graduate from the school to win a race and now works for the school 40 years later!
1992: Rory MacDonald OBE, becomes Chief Executive after Major Barney Griffiths retires.
Major building works take place to expand and improve the school, enabling us to accommodate more students and provide outstanding training facilities. This included new classrooms, student accommodation, reception area, dining hall, American barn, and horse walker thanks to generous funding from The Childwick Trust, E B M Charitable Trust and Newsells Park Stud.
“I was very lucky to spend one day a week at the BRS whilst at school. It gave me the perfect grounding for a successful career.”
Luke Morris
The ethos of the school going forward was to retain our status as the industry training centre for excellence whilst putting a greater focus on ensuring equality of access and opportunity for all young people to access careers in racing, empowering each individual to reach their potential. This was supported by the appointment of a new position of school nurse and introductory/ taster sessions in partnership with other charities such as The Prince’s Trust for those with no prior knowledge of horses or racing.
In 2014, Grant Harris becomes Chief Executive after Rory MacDonald retires.
In 2018 The British Racing School is awarded ‘Outstanding’ status following an Ofsted inspection.
2021: The Newmarket Pony Academy was born! Providing vital opportunities to children from local schools, the academy was piloted in 2020 and fully launched in 2021, led by our Finance Director Andrew Braithwaite and Penny Taylor from Godolphin and funded thanks to the generosity of the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust, Tattersalls, Godolphin and many others.
2023 marks 40 years of us being on our current site in Newmarket. Every Champion Apprentice in the last ten years has trained at The British Racing School!
Our Foundation Course as it is today was born in 2008! This included a new Round Gallop to bridge the transition from riding in the indoor school to the straight. A radio system was introduced for communicating with students whilst riding which is still integral to how we teach today. The course integrated an NVQ L2 qualification to enable the school to access government funding for the training element of our Foundation Courses going forward.
HRH The Princess Royal officially opened Jim Joel House in 2015. This provided an additional 12 bed spaces, a common room and a new classroom, thanks to generous funding from The Childwick Trust and E B M Charitable Trust.
In 2020 the BRS continued to provide education for young people throughout the pandemic under strict protocols and safety measures.
Our direction of travel for the next decade:
▶ Become more environmentally sustainable as a school and play our part in helping the industry as a whole to reduce its carbon footprint.
▶ As the gateway to the racing industry: proactively work on new initiatives to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the sport of horseracing.
▶ Continue to increase our international training.
▶ Continue to raise our profile as a charity which has the welfare and success of our young people and horses at the heart of everything we do.
Louis Steward
Want to know more about our horses?
Lydia de Souza, Foundation Course Instructor, gives an insight into how ex racehorses are rehomed and given a second career with us at the School…
The British Racing School is home to over 70 ex racehorses ranging from the age of 4 to 20 - making us home to more retired racehorses than any other site in the UK.
The horses’ welfare is a top priority for the School; we teach students how to look after horses to a ‘gold standard’ in order for them to be able to work at the high levels expected by the racing industry. The horses are kept in a mixture of barns and traditional loose boxes depending on where they settle best, they are bedded on thick straw beds or a dust-free shavings alternative. The horses eat top quality roughage in the form of hay, haylage or bagged dried grass depending on their individual dietary requirements and are fed a special ‘BRS’ cube made by Sharp Nutrition. The horses are groomed and exercised daily by the students to promote good health and are of course checked by instructors daily too to ensure trainees have not missed any subtle signs the horses may not be at their best. The British Racing School is lucky to have the services of Rossdales equine vets on the doorstep so horses can be treated quickly by some of the world’s top vets. All horses are vetted yearly in order to check their suitability for the work expected at the School. The horses also have regular holidays when they are turned out in herds for a well-deserved break and time to interact with other horses, which is vital for their mental wellbeing.
The horses come in all shapes and sizes from the 14.2hh racing ponies right up to former jumps horse Oakley Hall who stands at approximately 17.2hh, and one thing they all have in common is a larger waistline than when they were racing! So how do we choose suitable candidates? We rely on generous racing owners and trainers to offer us their horses at the end of their racing careers. We take these on a one month trial wherein they
In loving memory of Port Quin - the School’s longest-standing resident. “Porky”, as he was affectionately known by staff and students, joined the School in 2009.
Did you know...?
We order around 600 packets of polos every year for our horses (but we can’t quantify the number of treats they also get from our students!)
Did you know...?
Our current horses have won 236 races between them from 2,281 starts.
are ridden by members of staff in all facilities before being ridden by students. At the end of a successful trial the horses are purchased from the owners for £1 with the agreement that owners would then be given first refusal to repurchase the horse should they become no longer suitable for the School. Each horse is assessed regularly and given a grade, with 1 being the easiest and 5 the most difficult; this enables instructors to give students horses of a suitable level to both keep them safe but also suitably challenged as their course progresses. It is necessary to keep some more difficult horses to enable students to meet the demands of the industry on graduation, but we would never keep horses we considered a danger.
Port Quin was one of the School’s longest standing residents and came from Geoff Wragg aged 4 in 2009, who we sadly lost in 2023 aged 18. He was a real stalwart teaching huge numbers of students to do a rising trot and canter every year. ‘Porky’, as he was known, could often be grumpy to handle due to his excitable ways on the gallops and eventually earned himself a ban from the straight gallop. But, he was a favourite of the instructors nonetheless, not least because Mrs Aggie broke him in and Miss de Souza and Miss Westgate remember riding him when they were students! Does it matter if they were rubbish racehorses? Not at all! Some of our residents such as Roman Attack and Deviation were considered so slow they never ran in a race, but we are also home to Poetic Rhythm, Fergal O’Brien’s first Grade 1 winner, Perfect Candidate the winner of over £156k over jumps and Emirates Flyer who won £322k for Godolphin and even ran in Dubai! Regardless of ability these horses all have fantastic temperaments, and all teach the students different lessons at different stages of their course. We are truly grateful to their owners for their generosity.
Did you know...?
The School is home to over 70 ex-racehorses ranging from the age of 4 to 20 – making us home to more retired racehorses than any other site in the UK!
Little Meadow
Meet some of our horses
Castilo Del Diablo
Lily Eva
Five Star Junior
Tawseef
Age: 16
Height: 15hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2012
Wins: 0 from 20 starts
“AKA: Little Madam!”
Age: 14
Height: 15’3hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2017
Wins: 4 from 43 starts
“Is a great all rounder - stalls, jumping, work riding, great for beginners and is more challenging on the straights”
Army of Stars
Age: 17
Height: 15’3hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2012
Wins: 0 from 13 starts
“Loves cuddles and is popular with students”
Emirates Flyer
Percy Toplis
Age: 17
Height: 15’1hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2012
Wins: 7 from 66 starts
“...is scared of his own shadow!”
Age: 15
Height: 15hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2021
Wins: 12 from 92 starts “…always looks surprised!”
Simple Rhythm
Age: 17
Height: 15hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2012
Wins: 3 from 30 starts
“Fastest horse out of the stalls!”
Age: 12
Height: 15’1hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2018
Wins: 3 from 20 starts
“Rated 104 with £323,000 prize money”
Age: 9
Height: 15’3hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2021
Wins: 2 from 63 starts
“Lovely mid-level horse that teaches riders a lot”
Age: 17
Height: 15’2hh
Arrived @ BRS: 2013
Wins: 9 from 92 starts
“Mrs Aggie’s (one of our Instructors) favourite horse”
Meet Alison Harper: The journey from student in 1983 to staff member in 2023
In October 1983, Alison Harper joined the first ever course at The British Racing School’s new home in Newmarket. Having grown up nearby in Brinkley and ridden ponies since she was four years old, Alison has always had a passion for horses. Aged 13, she secured a summer and weekend job working in a small stud owned by Brian Taylor, then a jockey to Jeremy Hindley. There she worked with Judith Barclay and fell in love with the racehorses. On Alison’s 14th birthday, Judith said she could ride one of the horses destined for Hong Kong. Alison says:
“I don’t know why she let me ride but she did. She said, whatever you do, don’t canter. So I went down the bridle path and cantered! I couldn’t believe the feeling it gave me. That’s when I realised, I know what I want to do with my life – I want to be a jockey.”
After announcing it, Alison was discouraged from pursuing race-riding as a career and was directly told by those in the industry that “women aren’t jockeys.” However, Alison’s determination soon landed her an interview, and job aged 15, with Jeremy Hindley. When
The British Racing School moved to its new home in 1983, Alison was given an opportunity to join its first course, thanks to Sally Hindley, who was a Trustee at the time. The course was run by Johnny Gilbert, assisted by his son Andrew, who had been delivering the course from Goodwood before the School found its new home in Newmarket. About her course, Alison says:
“There were twelve of us on the course, including four females and someone from an ethnic minority background. It’s important to reflect on this because the School has always been accessible to anyone, right from day one. The setup of the School was great and I learnt so much. I had picked up things from working on a yard but the difference at the School was that you didn’t just learn how to do something, you also learnt why. Even then, fitness was a key part of the course and we had to run around the 50 acres every morning. Soon after we joined, the School was officially opened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. We were so excited to meet them, and practised our parade for hours and hours to make it perfect.”
A year later, Alison had her first ride in Newmarket, making her the first student (and consequently the first female) from the first course to have a public ride! Two years after graduating, she was then the first of her course to ride a winner, at Kempton. Talking about entering the racing industry as an aspiring female jockey, Alison says:
“I was a bit oblivious when I first set out about how difficult it was going to be. But my competitive nature meant that whenever I experienced knock-backs it just made me more determined to succeed. Despite it being a male-dominated and class-dominated industry at the time, I had some good people around me who took me under their wings and helped me along the way, but I had a double barrier to overcome to compete at the same level as my peers. When I first said I want to be a jockey, people laughed at me. So, rather than telling people my dream was to be Champion Jockey, I said I would like to have a ride, then after that I would like some more. In the afternoons, I would go through the Racing Post and call around trainers for outside rides, the same as the other apprentices, but the reactions to me were painful. Often, the secretaries would ask me who I am calling on behalf of, or tell me its not a girls ride or we need someone strong so we can’t take on a girl. However, when I started to get more rides, including televised ones, the press were kind to me and this boosted my confidence.”
To get more experience, Alison then moved to Norway and had success there. Her career as a jockey then took off; she got an apprentice job with Robert Williams and later travelled to Australia and Italy. She says she was welcomed so warmly in Italy and rode as a professional jockey there until she was 32, racking up just shy of 100 winners. After having her children, Alison then went on to join the newly-established Italian Racing School, and said that having been a student at the British Racing School was key to her being invited to be an Instructor there. Her time spent as a teacher there won her an award recognising her contribution to Italian Horse Racing and Equestrianism. After the Italian School closed due to lack of investment, Alison and her family moved back to the UK. She was offered a job as an Assistant Trainer to James Fanshawe and later moved to Marco Botti’s but deep down, she missed teaching, and her eyes were always set on working at The British Racing School. As with her career to date, Alison was determined to make her own luck and after making her wishes known to the School, she was eventually offered an Instructor role when an opening became available. Fast-forward to 2023, Alison is now the BRS’ Lead Workplace Instructor, having worked at the School since 2016. She says:
“When I stopped being a competitive horse person and had my children, like any sports person, when you retire, there is something missing, a real hole. When I started to teach young people and help them grow, I saw it as my way of paying back all those who had helped me along the way. I could give back to racing but also impart my knowledge on how to maintain the highest standards of horse care and welfare for these amazing animals, which I am so deeply passionate about. I have taught so many amazing students; and what often stuck out for me is the day that you see them go up the straights and they turn around with the most enormous grin on their face with their eyes are lit up. After all the struggles to get to that point, I suddenly see in their face that feeling I had when I rode my first racehorse on my 14th birthday.”
Asked what it means to be part of the School now in 2023, celebrating our 40th birthday, Alison says:
“I am immensely proud to work at The British Racing School and I know we have the best facilities in the world. I have always said I want this to be my forever job. It’s always been a source of pride to know I was on the first course here and the first student to ride, and win, from the School. To see how much it has evolved, and is still evolving and to be part of that evolution is amazing. It’s like I’ve gone full circle – had all these amazing experiences, travelled the world, and come back to the place that gave me all those opportunities in the first place. What makes this place so special is the impact that this School has on young lives and the strong determination of everyone here to achieve the best outcome for every young person who walks through our doors.”
