Stu Rowson, founder of Lucky Socks Media, reflects on the Racing Foundation Conference and the importance of connecting with young audiences

I’m Stu Rowson, founder of Lucky Socks Media, a creative agency helping sports and media organisations engage young audiences. Earlier this year, I was invited to speak at the Racing Foundation Conference, where I shared my thoughts on how racing can tell its stories differently to inspire the next generation.

Working across sport and media, I’ve seen how creative storytelling can help sports evolve, engage communities and stay relevant to new generations.

I’ve worked in the sports industry for around 25 years — but I don’t know that much about racing; just enough to get by. My first Grand National was in 1977, when Red Rum made history with his third victory at Aintree — though I don’t remember it. My mam was three months pregnant with me in the stands.

She always says I wouldn’t have seen much.

Now, 48 years on, through my work at Lucky Socks Media, I spend much of my time helping sports and media organisations of all shapes and sizes grow their reach and engagement with children and young audiences. Over the past year, we’ve worked with the likes of England Rugby, UK Sport and the golfing world.

Stu Rowson speaks at the Leaders in Sport conference in 2023

Too much knowledge

I almost always start by telling audiences the same thing: you know too much about your sport.

Most recently, it was during my recent appearance at the Racing Foundation Conference at York Racecourse — a room full of passionate racing people, all desperate to safeguard the future of the sport they love. Horseracing is no different to any other sport in that regard. The people who work in it, live it, breathe it, know more than anyone about their sport. But sometimes — pardon the pun — those blinkers can be the very thing that hold you back.

Stu Rowson at the 2025 Racing Foundation conference

Open to new ideas and a fresh approach

When it comes to reaching the next generation of fans, racegoers and maybe even jockeys, trainers or grooms, you have to look up and out, not down and deep.
That starts with telling great stories.

Fundamentally, everything is about storytelling, apart from storytelling; that’s about people. Racing is laden with amazing stories of amazing people and amazing animals. It’s just not great at telling them. The Racing Foundation Conference got people talking about just that.

The brilliant Rob Calder from Premiership Rugby took it a step further. He highlighted that taking a sport forward absolutely needs that great depth of knowledge and experience that almost always already exists, but it also has to open itself up to new ideas and a fresh approach to truly connect, engage and build the new audiences of tomorrow.

That’s exactly what is needed in racing. If racing is to move forward and break free from its shackles, it’s crucial it embraces a new approach of bravery, openness and inclusivity — one that learns from what’s happening elsewhere and welcomes fresh thinking.

Rob Calder, Chief Growth Officer of Premiership Rugby and Tom Baker, Head of Social Impact at the BHA, deliver keynote talks at the 2025 Racing Foundation Conference.

The answers are out there

Only by learning from the bravery of The Hundred in cricket, the marketing approaches of women’s sport in football and rugby, and by embracing ideas from outside the industry, can racing begin to deliver on the challenges of Project Beacon (work focused to improve the appeal of racing).

The road ahead is a difficult one, but the work of the Social Impact Strategy is a huge step in the right direction.

By getting the fundamental building blocks right at the entry points of the sport, with the youngest audience, racing can put itself back on the right track.

But it’ll need to be brave to make it work. The big question is: how brave is it willing to be?