Racing Home

On this latest episode we hear about how to engage children with horse racing by speaking to two of the lead educators at Racing To School, the organisation which introduces thousands of youngsters to the sport every year. Former jockeys Ollie McPhail and Carrie Ford share their journeys from riding in races to standing in front of a class of school kids who’ve come to the racecourse for a ‘Maths...

On this latest episode we hear a heartwarming true story about fostering from Julia Bennet, the Vice-President of the National Association of Racing Staff. Julia shares her experience of fostering 16 children within the Lambourn community. We also hear from her friend Christina Dunlop, whose own children became friends with some of the foster children as they got up to some amazing adventures. As...

The Racing Home podcast is back for a brand new series! On today’s episode we discuss the latest groundbreaking report from Racing Home, addressing Menopause and Midlife. The research was published by Women in Racing and supported by FDJ United. You can read the full report here: https://racinghome.org.uk/2026/02/25/groundbreaking-report-announced-for-racing-addressing-menopause-midlife/ Led by Dr...

We’re into June and it’s Royal Ascot next week! The sun is out and people who love racing are feeling pretty excited. In the meantime, there’s not only a Women in Racing event happening tomorrow but here at Racing Home we’ve also just released a brand new handbook that we’ve been working on for a while. It’s for both employers and employees in the breeding and racing world, including those of you...

It’s May, we’ve had the Guineas and we are in the thick of spring, the time of new birth. The buds are flowering, the lambs are out and if you go anywhere near a Thoroughbred stud, you’ll likely see plenty of foals dashing about in the paddocks.  And a stud was exactly where we went for this month’s episode of the Racing Home podcast - Mill Farm to be exact, home to Eileen and Keith Harte and...

If you’ve listened to first two episodes this season then you may well have heard Susannah Gill mention the topic of how society values - or actually, doesn’t value - people who care for others, which we touched on in last time’s conversation in the context of people who care for children and the importance of caregiving to facilitate parents returning to work. But childcare is one thing. What abo...

Welcome to Part 2 of our conversation with Eleanor Boden , Lucy Gurney , Susannah Gill and Tallulah Wilson ! If you haven’t listened to the first part of this conversation and you've got time to do so, maybe go back one episode and do just that, but either way, here’s a little recap on a few things about these 4 women, who’ve all had a big part to play in the work of Women in Racing and Racing Hom...

The Racing Home podcast is back! Next week marks the start of the Cheltenham Festival 2025 so in advance of that, we're here with the first episode of a new season of the podcast. Our guests this week will be familiar to many of you: Lucy Gurney is the current chair of Women in Racing and, alongside Tallulah , is one of the rocks on which Racing Home is built. Tallulah Wilson , Susannah Gill and E...

Today is the start of Royal Ascot 2024! One of our guests today is making his Royal Ascot presenting debut this week, and we’re delighted to bring you this podcast in a week women in racing from across the world are being showcased and celebrated once again.  We’ve talked a lot about parents in this series, particularly mothers, and we’ve heard from a fathers too. But if we want to create a w...

We've been very fortunate with Racing Home to have support from numerous folk across the industry, and we're welcoming two of them - with very different roles in racing, it must be said - to the podcast today. We were going to call this episode 'saints and sinners' but I think 'from grassroots to the boardroom' fits a little better. A huge thank to both my guests today for everything they're doing...

If my guest in our last episode needed very little introduction - that was Julie Harrington, the CEO of the BHA , in case you haven’t listened - then today’s is no exception to that rule either.  Nick Luck is one of the nation’s most recognisable racing broadcasters. Having been a mainstay of Channel 4 Racing previously, he’s also a stalwart of Racing TV , NBC’s Breeder’s Cup coverage in the...

My guest today is someone that you may well have heard of, and I’m really grateful to her for giving up her very precious and very busy time to join me for a podcast recording. Julie Harrington is the CEO of the British Horseracing Authority , as well as a mother to her daughter Sarah. Julie became a mum very young - she was still at school in fact - but built her career regardless, making her way...

It’s been a while since we released our chat with Alice Plunkett and Leanne Pipe , but it’s now 2023 and we are back for Season 2 of Racing Home! The first phase of the project went really well, and we’re delighted to have received support and funding for the next stage from the Racing Foundation and Kindred Group , which will allow the team to embark on further research and roll out the groundbre...

We’re bringing down the curtain on Racing Home 2022 with a pair of absolutely cracking women today, as we discuss navigating your role in life, whether that’s as a mother, a wife, a single parent or someone without kids, someone who works or someone who doesn’t, and how you find satisfaction in the life that you’ve carved out. How do you tread the path that others expect of you, and that you expec...

One the wonderful surprises about this podcast and the Racing Home project is the number of people who’ve said to us that the topics and ideas we’ve been discussing and highlighting are now much more front and centre of their thoughts and conversations at work than they ever have been before, and that they’re really trying to implement change within their small sphere of the racing bubble.  I...

We’ve talked a lot in previous episodes of the podcast about parenthood, work, the juggle and the balance of making it ALL fit together in life, however you choose to live it. But today I’ve got the pleasure of welcoming two fantastic women to talk about the latter end of women’s careers, and the spectre facing most of us at some point in our forties, fifties or beyond: the menopause . Like period...

We’ve got two senior women on the corporate and governance side of racing with us today, from the legal and HR elements of the industry. This chat was going to cover a bit about the situation in other sports and other industries, and a bit about their respective careers, but instead it became a wide-ranging conversation covering everything from not making the tea in the boardroom, to miscarriage,...

Next week sees the official launch of the Racing Home project at Kempton Racecourse where we’ll be talking - amongst other things - about a hugely exciting revolutionary new project designed by Racing Home in conjunction with the Injured Jockeys Fund and National Association Of Racing Staff to give proper, practical help to women in the industry. I’m delighted to be joined today by two women who’v...

We’ve talked previously about things from a legal perspective, an employers perspective and from a corporate perspective, but what about the young people entering the industry, how they’re taught and what they think? The new generation are vital in creating a sustainable, healthy racing industry, so today we’re talking to two brilliant women from the educational arm of horseracing. Abbie Taylor is...

The interview you’re going to hear today ranged from serious topics around mental health to gales of laughter as we discussed a potential post-pandemic night out in Dublin, and it was a joy to record, as we discussed family life from an LGBT+ perspective. Today's guests are Leo Powell, who has been Editor of the Irish Field for 19 years, prior to which he was Director of Sales and Marketing at Gof...

The Racing Home website is now up and running! Have a look here I’ve also had an amazing amount of feedback on the episodes we’ve put out so far, and some incredible conversations with people in the industry about all manner of things to do with motherhood, the menopause, termination for medical reasons, difficulties at work, juggling family and beyond. Thank you all for your messages, and for bei...

Ambition. What does that mean to you? For many women, especially women of colour, LGBTQI+ folk, women with disabilities, and dare we say it - mothers. ambition is still something we often feel inclined to hide. After all, nobody likes a pushy woman, a bossy woman, an assertive woman, or a woman who puts her career above all else, right?  In 2015, actress and advocate Reese Witherspoon gave a...

I’ve got a couple of brilliant women with me today, with a range of expertise and insights to bring you, talking about everything from maternity pay to shared parental leave to what it’s like recruiting your maternity replacement.  Gemma Ospedale is a partner in the employment team at law firm RWK Goodman . She specialises in employment law, advising both employers and employees on maternity...

If you’ve not heard of Racing Home before, and you’ve no idea what it’s all about or why it exists, then you’ve come to the right place. In our first episode today, I’m chatting to Tallulah Lewis , chair of Women in Racing and Kate Clayton-Hathway of Oxford Brookes University who spearheaded the Racing Home research. They’re here to give you the lowdown on what’s been done so far, and what you can...

My guests today employ 28 people between them, and have been recognised at the Lycett's Team Champion Awards for their excellent work in recruitment and development of their staff. They are Andrea O'Keeffe , who with her husband, trainer Jedd O'Keeffe and their three sons (who are all employed in the business), run a yard of 44 Flat and National Hunt horses in North Yorkshire, and Claire Kübler ,...