Autism

Autism in Racing has teamed up with the National Autistic Society in an effort to help encourage autistic people to work in the racing industry. Autism-friendly racedays have been staged at a number of tracks and with the support of the Bloomfield Trust. According to recent figures from the Office for National Statistics, only 29 per cent of autistic people are employed. "I'm really thrilled that Autism in Racing and the National Autistic Society will partner up through their Autism at Work programme," said Bobby Beevers, founder of Autism in...

When you live within the world of autism, you have a special antenna for the word and its associations, a heightened sensitivity. It was on a late December evening that a horse called In Honor of Autism came onto this radar running at Golden Gate Fields. In fact, there were two runners in the silks of Johnny Taboada in the race, the other named Talk About Autism. Lo and behold, the former--a son of Stanford--won and my interest was peaked. I have a son, Dylan, who is non-verbal and, we...

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...

The Center for Disease Control reports that in 2020 approximately 1 in 54 children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). April is Autism Awareness Month, so it is fitting that we visit with Joell Dunlap, founder of The Square Peg Foundation, which pairs off-track Thoroughbreds with children affected by an ASD and their families. Founded in 2004, Square Peg operates out of two facilities in the Bay Area of California with 19 horses in total. Of the 19 horses, 13 are off-track Thoroughbreds. Before...