Baroness Dido Harding has succeeded Sandy Dudgeon as one senior steward of The Jockey Club (TJC). Her term will last for five years.
A member of TJC since 2004 and part of the Board of Stewards since 2017, Harding will chair TJC's main board, and will serve as a senior steward with The Lord Grimthorpe as her deputy senior steward. Also on the board of stewards are stewards William Rucker, William Sporborg, Tim Syder, Sam Waley-Cohen, Lady Carolyn Warren, and William Wyatt.
The 56-year-old was previously a racecourse committee member at TJC's Cheltenham Racecourse and a director of Racecourse Holdings Trust, which was later renamed Jockey Club Racecourses. An amateur jockey in the 1980s and 1990s, Harding eventually rode 25 winners. Her Cool Dawn (Ire) (Over The River {Fr}) won the 1998 G1 Cheltenham Gold Cup. She also had a 25-year career in business and the public sector, and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2014.
Upon beginning her role, Harding said, “The role of the Board of Stewards is to be both support and challenge to The Jockey Club's leadership team, to protect and champion the organisation and our sport and to ensure we all live up to our mission to further the long term good of racing.
“Sandy has led The Jockey Club as senior steward through some extraordinary and unprecedented times over the last five years. He will be a very difficult act to follow and it is a huge honour and privilege to succeed him.
“There is no doubt that our sport continues to face some significant challenges. The impact of the pandemic and inflation on the cost of living is creating issues for every sports and entertainment business, and we are no different. Changing attitudes to animal welfare, the role of horses in modern life and our increasingly urban society, not to mention how technology is changing how all of us spend our leisure time, mean that it has never been more important that we listen to and learn from all those who come racing and contribute to or follow the sport.”
The Jockey Club group chief executive Nevin Truesdale will be leaving his role potentially by the end of the year, and he has asked the Board of Stewards to begin the process of finding his successor. The news was announced earlier this year.
Harding added, “While my immediate priority is to oversee the recruitment of a new chief executive, my primary focus over the coming years is to encourage all of us at The Jockey Club to deliver the best experiences for and act in the best interests of those who love our sport and the millions of people who visit us at our various locations every year, whether as fans, trainers, jockeys, owners or breeders.
“People from all backgrounds and walks of life have enjoyed a great day out watching horses race for hundreds of years and all across the world. British racing, with our incredible diversity of racecourses, history and heritage has been at the forefront of the sport for all that time and I am utterly convinced that our future is a positive one.
“The Jockey Club stages events that capture the hearts and minds of the nation, runs venues that are important contributors to our local communities and we all care passionately about what we do. It's so important, therefore, that our roles on racecourses, at our training centres, The National Stud and in the many support functions is focused on delivering the best possible experiences for all.”
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