Diversity

1/ST RACING and FanDuel TV will return as presenting sponsors for the 2023 Horse Racing Women's Summit held Sept. 27-29 at Santa Anita Park. "1/ST is committed to ensuring the racing industry continues to expand through inclusivity and diversity," said Aidan Butler, CEO of 1/ST RACING & GAMING. "The Horse Racing Women's Summit is aligned steadfast with this vision, and we are proud to be co-sponsoring this event with FanDuel TV for the second year." "After the inaugural Horse Racing Women's Summit was such a resounding success, the FanDuel Group...

Dr. Ernest Bailey shares the science behind the importance of diversity in equine genetics on this week's TDN Writers' Room. Plus the writers recap the GI Whitney S. and preview an exciting upcoming weekend of racing.

British racing launches a new campaign--All In The Race-with the goal of improving diversity and inclusivity in the sport. The All In The Race campaign has been led by the Diversity in Racing Steering Group (DiRSG). Highlighting the campaign is a 1-minute video, featuring jockeys, trainers, racing staff and members of racing staff working in yards, racecourse personnel, figures from the racing media and administration of the sport, as well as racegoers and members of Ebony Horse Club. "With so many other brilliant people, initiatives and organisations across the sport,...

Growing up near Third Street in Lexington, Ron Mack spent much of his childhood playing football with friends on what was once the infield of the Kentucky Association racetrack, but he didn't realize that they were throwing a football on hallowed ground until years later. After playing football for the University of Kentucky and then building a career in commercial banking in Atlanta, Mack returned to Lexington in 2014 and began digging into the history of horse racing and the Kentucky Association. What Mack learned through his research led to...

I write today after reading the thoughtful letter from Jason Wilson regarding diversity in the Keeneland Sales ring. I'm reminded of a question I first asked sometime during the early 1980's: Why aren't grooms included in the Hall of Fame? This came to mind when I noticed that a yearling my employer (EMO Stables) had pinhooked at the time--Secretary General (by Foolish Pleasure out of Sippican, by Stage Door Johnny)--was running in the first-ever Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 1984. That race was won by Chief's Crown, trained by Roger Laurin...

The 2020 Annual Update from the Diversity in Racing Steering Group (DiRSG) was published on Monday. The report highlights the importance of capitalising on the current momentum within British racing to continue to work together for a more diverse and inclusive sport. Funded by the Racing Foundation, the DiRSG report also contains discussion of ethnic diversity within racing in light of the worldwide conversation about race and racism seen this year, highlights a number of important individual milestones as well as the launch of a wide variety of industry initiatives...

With an eye on bolstering the available pool of labor, several Kentucky horse farms, along with other industry organizations, have come together and donated $322,000 to the Fayette County Public Schools, which will be creating an all-encompassing equine training program for middle school students and high school students attending the Locust Trace AgriScience Center in Lexington. While Fayette County might seem like a natural breeding ground for future farm employees that wasn't necessarily the case, said Chauncey Morris, the executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, which spearheaded the effort...

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...

On a sparsely traveled road in downtown Lexington, African Cemetery No. 2 sits encircled by a worn iron fence. The sounds of cars flashing by nearby busier streets, the incessant barking of a neighboring dog and the harsh droning of a drill from the adjacent auto parts shop carry through the isolated eight-acre plot. Opened in 1869, the site now contains over 5,000 graves, of which fewer than 600 are recognized with markers. The plot inters hundreds of enslaved African Americans, as well as members of the U.S. Colored Troops...

Co-Owner, Siena Farm, Paris, KY Since the beginning of time, humans have pigeonholed each other by race, religion, gender and wealth, which has resulted in discrimination. There are many pathways that can and must be taken to reduce systemic racism and prejudice. But I see no pathway to eliminate latent discrimination; humans will always pigeonhole. There continues to be systemic racism in all sports and in American society. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans and Muslims continue to bear the brunt of latent discrimination and prejudice. In the early days of...

Horseplayer, NYRA/Fox Analyst, Co-creator In The Money Media What if one of racing's biggest moments had a Black person at the center? Other sports have had such moments, from Doug Williams winning the Super Bowl to Tiger Woods's first Masters victory to Venus Williams winning Wimbledon. These moments made these sports more appealing to Black people because they saw people who looked like them achieving success at the highest levels. Racing in the modern era is still waiting for that moment. And for a sport that's been so traditionally white,...

Is it even possible to be inclusive in an exclusive game? Kudos to Sue Finley and this publication for its series on diversity and inclusion, featuring several notable individuals who've made poignant cases for the benefits of opening racing's upper-echelon doors to Black people, people of color, women and other marginalized groups. However, the ways in which racing has been drifting are going to make this difficult. Money is power, and if you take away the participation of wealthy foreign stakeholders--South Americans, Europeans, and Middle Easterners--racing in this country is...