The BHA’s, Diversity & Inclusion Project Manager Erik Tomlin explains how Pride celebrations are just one part of a wider inclusion effort that also aims to support women and ethnic and culturally diverse people in racing.

A couple weeks ago I delivered a presentation at the BHA called Why We Still Need Pride in 2026. People engaged with the history, asked thoughtful questions, and reflected on why Pride continues to matter.

Why we still need Pride in 2026 – and what we’re doing about It

It’s a fair question to ask right now. British racing has just come through Royal Ascot and Epsom, we’ve been managing an equine flu outbreak, and everyone’s dealing with the kind of heat that makes every job harder. In a summer like this, it’s easy for something like Pride to feel like it’s slipping down the list.  I don’t think it’s because people have actively decided that it matters less, it can sometimes feel like another thing to do on top of a very busy calendar.

It’s worth saying clearly: Pride hasn’t become less important. If anything, the busier an industry gets, the more important the quiet work of inclusion becomes. That’s our job as the BHA’s D&I team, and it’s the case I want to make here.

The BHA raceday team wear rainbow armbands at Sandown Park Racecourse in support of continued progress towards LGBTQ+ inclusion across the sport.

Why it still matters

One point from the presentation stuck with people more than any other: British racing has had exactly one jockey come out as gay, in 2013.  In fact, he was the first openly gay jockey in Europe. Over a decade later, he remains the only one in British racing to do so.

That statistic isn’t due to a lack of goodwill. Racing is full of enthusiastic and committed allies. But coming out is deeply personal, and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. People make that decision in the context of the culture around them and what they believe might happen afterwards. We saw a snapshot of this wider culture last month, when separate disciplinary cases involving two racehorse trainers’ conduct towards women, which went through the BHA’s process as they should have. The public reaction to both these cases included people on social media defending the conduct and questioning why the BHA was bothering to act. This reaction tells you something about the climate LGBTQ+ people are weighing up when they decide whether coming out is worth the risk. Culture and confidence are connected and are exactly why continuing to set expectations, challenge poor behaviour, and create visible support networks remains so important.

Our Pride celebrations are just one part of a wider inclusion effort that also aims to support women and ethnic and culturally diverse people in racing. These efforts don’t sit in isolation from each other. Progress in one area shifts the culture for all of them: when we uplift and celebrate LGBTQ+ people in this sport, it strengthens the same culture that makes racing more welcoming for everyone else we’re trying to reach. That’s why this stays front of mind for us as a D&I team – not as one campaign among many, but as part of the same, single job of building an inclusive culture.

Pretending wears the Racing With Pride winner’s rug after winning the ‘Betfair Supports Racing With Pride Mares’ Handicap Hurdle’ at Sandown Park Racecourse in December 2023.

What we’re doing

As the BHA’s D&I team, our job isn’t to run a Pride campaign once a year, it’s to keep the case for inclusion in front of the industry consistently, and to make it easier for others to act on it. A few things we’ve put in place recently:

• Building it into how the organisation plans, not just how it reacts. We have regular cross-team planning meetings where heritage and awareness events, including Pride, are standing agenda items.  This gives us the opportunity to see how these are connected and make sure we have all the resources in place to make the most of what we’re doing.
• Giving people the tools to have better conversations, not just good intentions. We’re restructuring how EDI education works, making it more practical and relevant to different roles.  One example is a recent Racing Staff Development Programme webinar – “Creating Inclusive Racing Environments” – where we took attendees through practical actions they can do to be more inclusive in the way they communicate.
• Working with organisations doing the frontline work. Racing With Pride and Women in Racing continue to lead the day-to-day work of building visibility and community in the sport, and part of our role is making sure they have the platform, resources and organisational backing to do that sustainably rather than on goodwill alone.
• Since the development of the EDI Strategy, we’ve put together an Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Action Plan, we’ve relaunched an improved RaceWISE reporting system, and  reinvigorated the Industry Commitment Programme with a focus on helping organisations complete meaningful D&I Action Plans.

None of this is a finished job, and I don’t want to pretend otherwise. But our intention is to shift from inclusion being something a handful of people carry on top of everything else, to embedding it within normal day-to-day activity.

Members of Racing With Pride at a prize presentation during the Betfair Tingle Creek Festival at Sandown Park.

What we’re asking of the industry

Pride has never existed because LGBTQ+ people were welcomed into society without resistance – it exists because communities refused to do the work alone. The UK’s Gay Liberation Front was founded after two activists heard a Black civil rights leader speak about the oppression faced by gay people in America. Trade unions, community groups, colleagues and friends have shaped the story of Pride ever since – people who decided somebody else’s struggle mattered to them, too. That’s what allyship has always looked like: participation, not just agreement.

Right now, in racing, that participation can be small and specific:

• Learn practical ways to communicate more inclusively. Watch the webinar I delivered for the Racing Staff Development Programme, Creating Inclusive Racing Environments – Email to request access
• Offer skills, not just support. Racing With Pride is building out its social presence to give the community a stronger, more consistent voice year-round, and they need people with an interest in content or social media who can spare even a couple of hours a month. If that’s you, get in touch: info@racingwithpride.co.uk.
• Speak up when something isn’t right. A single colleague pushing back changes the calculation for everyone watching. If you see or hear a comment, a joke, or a dismissal that undermines the work we’re doing, say something, even briefly. The webinar above has a section on how to do this well, if you want a steer.

We know everyone’s stretched thin. That’s precisely why we’re trying to make the ask specific and small rather than vague and open-ended. A few extra hands on something concrete does more than a lot of people quietly agreeing it matters.

Pride month has come to an end, but the work hasn’t. As British racing’s governing body, we’re committed to keeping this work going and we welcome even more of the industry standing with us as we do.