The British Racing School Celebrates 40yrs

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00:00In the 40 years since the British Racing School opened its doors in Newmarket, it has played

00:06a vital role in developing and nurturing the workforce that is needed for the horse racing

00:10industry. Andrew Braitway, CEO for the school, tells us about the importance of the British

00:15Racing School and what they have planned to mark the anniversary.

00:1940 years since we came here to Newmarket, so obviously a long time. The site was opened

00:28back in 83 by Prince Charles, who was then the King, so rolled on 40 years and very fortunate

00:37to have a visit from the Queen, from Queen Camilla, to mark that. So, yeah, a long time

00:45and a huge amount has been achieved by lots of people since we arrived here in 83.

00:50There's been a big expansion, lots of new buildings and just delivering much more training

00:57now than we did in the initial years that we were here on site. It's been great fun

01:03for everyone actually finding the old photos and looking back. I wasn't here in 83, but

01:08we have actually got some people within the staff now who were actually on courses in

01:1583 and here at the beginning. So, yeah, just a huge expansion in the range of training

01:22that we deliver and the volume as well. A huge range of courses. The focus and the primary

01:29purpose of the racing school today is to train stable staff, so that's young people, typically

01:3516 to 24, coming on a residential course here to learn the basics. We call them foundation

01:42courses. They're exactly that. They're laying the foundations and then we rely on the trainers

01:47to then take those young people on to apprenticeship programs and continue to develop those young

01:54people once they're in the workplace. We look to place between 140 and 150 young people

02:00each year into their first job in racing. That's kind of our biggest role, but then

02:06aside from that we provide training for racing secretaries, future racehorse trainers. We

02:14look after the jockey coaching program, deliver a lot of jockey training development on behalf

02:18of the BHA and the wider industry. We have students now coming from all over the world.

02:25Next big event to mark the 40th is the weekend of the 21st, 22nd of July. We've got an event

02:33for some of our supporters and those that have been with us since the get-go and funders

02:40and people like that on the 21st and then the 22nd we're having a family fun day here

02:45on our site in Newmarket. Everyone's welcome to come, obviously with their families, friends.

02:53Just going to be a really fun day, lots of activities. A number of us from the staff

02:58have been beavering away, training some of the retired racehorses we have here to do

03:04a show jumping competition. We're not sure how that's going to go, but it will definitely

03:11be entertaining anyway. And lots of other activities as well. We've got the Shetland

03:16Grand National team here. Just a fun day, celebrating what's been achieved and looking

03:23forward to the future.