“Listen, measure, be proud, work together.” Inspired learnings from sport and charity sector

Racing Together Industry Day, 6th February at Nottingham Racecourse

A record 120 guests and speakers from across the sport of horseracing and the wider sport and charity sector attended Nottingham Racecourse on 6th February for the annual Racing Together Industry Day. The event – sponsored by Gallagher and supported by The Levy Board, the Racing Foundation and The Racecourse Association – set out to explore the provocative theme: ‘Transactional or transformational: the real value of racing’.

Around 90 separate organisations, including 24 charities, were represented at Nottingham, a racecourse in close proximity to many iconic sports teams and venues.

Keynote speaker Baroness Dido Harding offered her experiences of social impact work from her many career roles, closing her insightful presentation by encouraging the room to: ‘Listen, measure, be proud and work together’.

Representing British Cycling, Tracy Power shared ambitions to transform the social impact of British Cycling, sharing successes and challenges on their journey and their strategic approach to tackling societal issues using the power of cycling. She reassured the audience that the goal to tackle inactivity was not about getting on a bike but finding innovative ways to use the sport to create intentional and purposeful impact. Attendees reflected on the day as inspiring and thought-provoking, and guests were delighted by the visit from former high-class racehorse Sharjah, who drew a big lunchtime crowd keen to say hello. Now in a loving new home with Racing to School Trustee Abbie Hawkins, Sharjah joined the event to reinforce the day’s theme of the positive impact and powerful value of the horse-human connection.

Former Magnolia Cup charity race winner Ashleigh Wicheard hosted a panel of representatives from sport and charities focussed on sport’s impact on social cohesion, drawing upon her own experience working with prisoners through Key4Life, with insights from Dallaglio RugbyWorks, Nottingham Forest Community Trust, Forever Notts and Lindsey Burrow, widow of rugby league star, Rob Burrow. 

Simplicity was a theme identified by Charlotte Russell highlighting Go Racing in Yorkshire’s award-winning NHS Bowel Cancer Screening partnership, echoed next by Kelly Hogarth of Multibank on their approach to re-routing surplus hygiene products to those who need them most and creating powerful partnerships across sport that help them achieve social impact.

“There was an unflagging optimistic feel throughout the day that we’ve rarely seen at large industry gatherings, and this is due in no small part to the passion of the guest speakers and the willingness of the delegates to engage and question,” said Racing Together CEO John Blake.

“We wanted to provoke conversations around whether there is a genuine coexistence between racing’s intrinsic transactional nature and its power and potential to be transformative, and in ways that cannot be measured by ticket sales, a healthy sales ledger or ratings within a form book.”

The day concluded with another panel discussion, this time focussing on the racehorse as a unique asset. Journalist Samantha Martin guided the conversation with representatives from the National Stud, the rehoming charity New Beginnings and the youngest attendee, Hugo Scott-Willis, a work rider and aspiring jockey at Richard Fahey racing, and a very humorous and insightful contributor.

All delegates were surveyed for their feedback and among the comments received were:

“Really enjoyable workshop. It is so important that this subject retains its place on the conference calendar as you can see year on year the progress being made. The things we are talking about now, and the calibre of speaker we are looking to for best practice, is far beyond what we had in previous years.”

“Was such a treat to have the racehorse visit, great networking and has been inspiring.”

“Great event hosting and opening speech. Very smoothly run event and as always networking day.”

“The greatest value was from the message of ‘listen, measure…’ There is often a sense in racing that problems are overwhelming, but breaking things down and hence making them achievable is a really strong message.  The speakers who actually demonstrated the doing and the how of doing were the most helpful for me.”