The PC brigade’s vile assault on horseracing

That even British horseracing has been taken over by woke shows that no area of society is safe from identitarian activists. For close to 10 years, diversity, equity and inclusion policies have proliferated at the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), the sport’s governing body, where I used to work as the principal intelligence analyst. So how did horseracing – of all institutions – fall into this trap?

The first signs of what was to come can be traced back to 2017. French racing authorities decided there might be a natural physical disadvantage for female jockeys, and introduced a weight allowance to level the playing field. In Britain, the alternative view held sway – namely, that riding is a matter of skill rather than innate strength. It seemed like a harmless debate at first, even one where both sides had valid arguments. But it’s not where things remained for long.

By 2018, Nick Rust, the then chief executive of the BHA, was repeating platitudes about diversity. ‘We need to challenge ourselves as to whether there exists a conscious or unconscious bias within our industry when it comes to issues such as gender, race or disability’, he announced. A year later, the BHA adopted nonsensical, trans-activist terms such as ‘pregnant person’ in surveys.

By this time, the doctrine of diversity had become firmly embedded within the BHA, largely thanks to the organisation’s Diversity in Racing Steering Group. Ideology was imported from universities and lobby groups like Stonewall, and spread via training modules such as ‘LGBT+ awareness’. The source of racing’s pride, that men and women compete on equal terms, was updated to ‘all genders compete on equal terms’. Racecourses were persuaded to hoist Pride flags and staff were encouraged to add their pronouns to email footers.

Unsurprisingly, woke activism strengthened its grip on BHA and racing more generally during Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Diversity became something approaching a religion. Then chairwoman Annamarie Phelps bemoaned the BHA’s inability to address ‘racism or diversity in racing’, while a ‘black power’ clenched fist logo appeared in a diversity document on the website of the Racing Foundation, a grant-giving charitable body with links to the industry. BLM supporters were given platforms to make unsubstantiated accusations of racism against the sport.

Just how bad things had become at the BHA was revealed for all to see at the 2023 Epsom Derby. It featured a ‘library of LGBTQIA+ literature’ and a ‘celebratory’ area with drag-queen performers. The Jockey Club, which owns Epsom Downs racecourse, said it was ‘passionate about making horseracing an open and welcoming sport for all’. One of the drag queens said: ‘It’s about normalising the culture and… letting people of all ages take in this confidence that we always exude when we go on stage.’

The goals of diversity policies are surely well outside the competency of any sporting authority. Horseracing, needless to say, is no place for politics. That woke policies were imposed from the top down and without accountability merely aggravates the matter. It is remarkable that horseracing, usually so invested in rules and procedural integrity, has been so cavalier in this one area.

What can be done? A new chief executive of the BHA is set to be appointed this year. In theory, he or she can order an investigation, establish how things got so out of hand, with the aim of returning horseracing bodies to pre-2017 policies. Essentially, what is needed is a controlled burn of DEI-related policies and material. I say ‘in theory’, because activist executives have sought to make their diversity revolution irreversible by, for example, installing diversity and inclusion ‘champions’ across the industry.

Outside of horseracing, a new mood against gender and racial identity politics is in the air. It’s time for those in charge of our sport to take notice.

John Gardner was principal intelligence analyst at the British Horseracing Authority from 2002 to 2023.