Backing The Wrong Horse: The Ideological Capture Of British Horseracing
The 2026 “All in the Race” Strategy
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In March 2026, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) launched its 2026-2028 EDI strategy, All in the Race, committing the sport to a multi-year action plan.1
The strategy presents horseracing as a sport where “all genders” compete side by side, and claims the industry has been “united” through Pride and Black History Month. It promises to “embed culture change”, “celebrate diversity”, and deliver “continuous learning” for staff and managers. It boasts that racing staff come from 68 nationalities and commits to their progression by improving English language skills.
And, like clockwork, it speaks of building “more diverse viewpoints” while setting EDI objectives in stone.
The strategy also highlights “inclusive racecourse initiatives” run in partnership with the LGBTQ group Racing With Pride, stating that “their voices guide and lead this work”.
Let’s take a step back a few years to see how British horseracing arrived at this point.
In most sports, men and women compete separately due to the average male advantage in strength and athletic capacity. Yet the report used to launch the BHA’s diversity policy in May 2017 appeared to resent such differences. The Oxford Brookes University’s report into women’s representation in racing included the following passage:2
‘A central argument raised for the differential in success is a perception held by some that women are biologically inferior, and that it follows that trainers/owners will choose men over women because they perceive that men are stronger.’ (p36)
“Inferior” is a loaded term - likely the authors’ own projection - and trainers and owners do not “perceive” men are stronger. Men, on average, have a stronger grip, more muscle mass, and greater upper-body strength. In strength-dominant sports, these differences justify separate male and female categories.
Horseracing, however, is regarded as a test of skill in which the horse supplies the power, allowing men and women to compete on equal terms. This fitted the progressive outlook of the BHA’s new diversity policy: from 2017, it declared “pride” in the equality aspect and, in 2020, Great British Racing (GBR) launched a “Just Jockeys” campaign, promoting,
“… the need for us to drop the term ‘female jockeys’ and celebrate the sport as one … Racing has no gender, it’s your skill and talent that counts”.3
Oblivious to contradiction, GBR launched this campaign in conjunction with International Women’s Day:
Gender Diversity
One can see in the slogan “racing has no gender” the roots of “gender diversity”: if one accepts the principle that distinguishing between male and female is unnecessary and outdated, why should being male or female even matter? This way of thinking is consistent with Gender Theory, whereby male and female are redefined as one category, “cisgender”, while other gender identities include “trans”, “non-binary”, and “gender fluid”.
Gender Theory goes against physical reality; women give birth, not men. Yet, a BHA staff survey in 2019 used the terms “pregnant person” and “breastfeeding person”, and the racing industry’s online LGBTQ module, launched in June 2020, taught that people are “assigned” their sex at birth, rather than it being observed and recorded. In March 2022, BHA staff were asked to consider adding their pronouns to email footers, while racecourses sought to introduce “gender diversity” via on-course events.
Drag Queens
In March 2022, Hereford racecourse hosted drag queen Boo La Croux for Ladies Day:4
Having men dressed as women for Ladies Day might be considered a wheeze, but this is not comparable to, say, a guest appearance by Hinge and Bracket, who acted in character. Boo La Croux’s appearance was a precursor to Hereford racecourse hosting “Pride 22”.
The same month, the Jockey Club invited the late George Ward, in drag as Cherry Valentine, to Ladies Day at Epsom Downs, where he joined a panel to judge the fashions. George Ward identified as “genderfluid”, and used they/them pronouns. The Jockey Club said in its press release:5
‘The most inclusive Style Awards yet, guests of all identities are encouraged to enter and showcase their Ladies Day attire … As part of its journey to grow and evolve, The Jockey Club has implemented several initiatives focusing on gender, race and supporting LGBTQ+ communities.’
Pride Events
It’s normal for racecourses to be hired out for private events, such as conferences and weddings. If a Pride group wishes to hire a racecourse for an event, the racecourse can accommodate them in the same way. If parents choose to bring their children, that is a matter for parents, not the racecourse.
But that’s not the situation; racecourses have explicitly tied themselves to Pride and LGBTQ ideology by flying Pride flags and messaging, endorsed by the Racecourse Association (RCA):6
The Racecourse Association supports Racing With Pride, the LGBTQ group set up with the blessing of the BHA. The below photo shows Racing With Pride at York racecourse:
This sign at Sandown, owned by the Jockey Club, states “proud to support Racing With Pride”:
Racing With Pride is not just a social or support group; it engages in activism. According to its own description, it seeks to “influence social change and promote a diverse and inclusive industry”.7
In June 2023, Epsom racecourse held a “LGBTQIA+ celebratory area” (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual). It was hosted by drag queens and included a free library of LGBTQIA+ literature and a music stage on which children danced. Drag queen Le Fil said,8
“We’ve just been welcoming everyone to the stage, having a dance, having a boogie, it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve had so many lovely little kids coming up to perform. Like we’ve been going, ‘do you want a lip sync’ and they’re like ‘YES’ so we’re like ‘come on and show us what you’ve got’”.
In explaining the event, the Jockey Club said:9
“The Jockey Club is passionate about making horse racing an open and welcoming sport for all. The research that has been undertaken highlights there are not enough spaces created with the LGBTQIA+ community in mind at major sporting events and this initiative is only the first step in exploring what part The Jockey Club can play in helping to address that”.
However, another of the drag queens at Epsom, Cara Melle, said to Pink News:10
“It’s really important that we are there because it’s about normalising the culture and normalising what we do, and letting people of all ages take in this confidence that we always exude when we go on stage and we’re performing or having a good time”.
Note the clear divergence in explanations. The Jockey Club presents this as a “welcoming sport for all”, but Cara Melle says the objective is normalising LGBTQ for “all ages”.
Homosexuality was legalised in 1967, and age of consent was equalised in 2001. The purpose of Pride is therefore not legal equality or protection from discrimination, but achieving social and moral equality between LGBTQ lifestyles and traditional family norms. If one believes in this goal, introducing it to children is not radical, but merely a logical extension. Children do not understand LGBTQ, but they do respond to colour, music, and dancing. Associating LGBTQ with fun in the minds of children helps normalise it. When combined with similar messaging in schools and media, this can influence teenagers toward life-changing choices before they are mature.
Previously, these issues were worked out in the public square, but racecourses were for horseracing. The British Horseracing Authority and other bodies have waded into matters far outside their remit - fraught with moral hazard - while relying on diversity advocates for direction and validation.
The March 2026 All in the Race strategy shows this is no passing phase. What began in 2017 as an attempt to increase female participation has become a comprehensive programme of cultural and ideological reform. The strategy describes itself as a “call to action” and creates a formal structure of networks, EDI Dashboard, funding streams, and incentives such as awards.
Extending DEI to Race and Ethnicity
The ideological push is not limited to gender and sexuality. The strategy has a particular emphasis on demographic profiling, including a Workforce Data Warehouse incorporating ethnicity data.
Back in June 2020, during the lockdown, a Black Lives Matter square logo appeared on the BHA’s staff intranet, accompanied by an email from the Head of Diversity and Inclusion invoking “systemic racism” and urging staff to “educate ourselves”. The post was approved by chief executive Nick Rust, and chairwoman Annamarie Phelps claimed the existence of “white privilege”.
From 2020 onwards, the diversity policy began portraying the industry’s natural British demography as an injustice that needed correcting to make the sport “reflective of the society it serves”. In 2021, the BHA arranged a race and ethnicity webinar that discussed “white supremacy” and “unconscious bias”. In 2022, a rider “took the knee” at a charity race at Goodwood racecourse, an act endorsed by racing authorities. In 2023, British horseracing officially marked Stephen Lawrence Day.
In 2024, industry representatives held an Inclusion Symposium in Newmarket to ask, “Is racing ready to be truly diverse?” The word “truly” is significant; it signals not organic or voluntary change, but something deliberate and transformational.
The 2026 strategy implements “inclusive career pathways” aimed at BAME groups, and introduces monitoring and targets: 42% female and 15% BAME jockeys by 2035. It mandates staff education in inclusion, which is certain to contain ideological elements; for instance, a previous Diversity and Inclusion training module (launched in 2022) portrayed “taking the knee” in sport favourably.
All of this is another example of moral hazard. Since 1997, successive governments have dramatically changed Britain’s demography. Racing authorities could have responded along these lines:
The British state’s demographic policies are not the concern of horseracing’s governing bodies. People from all backgrounds are welcome to participate in racing; we will ensure they are treated equally, but we will go no further. Horseracing authorities will not act as propagandists or facilitators for a wider agenda.
Such a stance would have both respected the native population and accommodated the new population as individuals rather than as members of groups, thereby protecting horseracing’s impartial name.
Instead, through its governing bodies, horseracing - and indeed other sports - is no longer a free association of men and women. Rather, it is being systematically reshaped to serve broader social and political goals.
About the Author: John Gardner worked at the British Horseracing Authority from 2002 to 2023. His Substack DEI in British Sport: Horseracing Examined (www.deiexamined.com) provides a detailed critique of how Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies have been implemented across the sport.