Letter to the Editor on Diversity in Racing: Jacqueline Durvin

Thank you for your series Diversity in Racing; I appreciate that you and other voices in racing are thinking about how to cultivate a more diverse and inclusive environment throughout the horse racing industry.

For full disclosure I am a recent graduate of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program, but I am also an autistic person with ADHD— in a word, neurodiverse. What that means is that my brain is quite literally “wired” differently at its most basic level. Neurodiversity currently describes the Autistic, ADHDers, the Epileptic, and people with Tourette Syndrome. The extent to which this affects a person ranges widely and uniquely. As with most other neurodivergent people, my strengths are often exceptional and my weaknesses require some form of accommodation in order for me to reach parity with an abled person; fortunately, many such accommodations are now recognized as an unanticipated positive for the abled workforce as well, e.g. sound dampeners, and work-from-home capabilities.

I think racing would benefit from fostering outreach with the neurodiversity movement because an effectively placed neurodivergent person with an opportunity to participate in his or her special interest has the potential to create some extraordinary results, e.g. Michael Phelps (ADHD), Anthony Hopkins (Autism) and Greta Thunberg (Autism). The special interest is the capacity of the neurodiverse brain to form a powerful fixation on something and the relentless motivation to learn all which is known about a subject.

As most people with a stake in the well-being of horse racing already know, racing is facing existential threats from without and catastrophic weaknesses from within. It will need people with a natural dedication and passion for racing, a knack for unorthodox problem solving, the capacity to lay bare the ugly problems facing horse racing and the unflinching determination to change the conditions which brought such ignominy to such a marvelous sport.

Racing needs the neurodiverse.