Racing’s (Management) Hot Prospects

SEARCHING for the next generation of horseracing fans is an industry-wide conundrum, but what of the next generation of Racecourse Managers? That’s a quest which Britain’s two biggest groups, Jockey Club Racecourses and Arena Racing Company, and the major independents are tackling with their own training schemes.

Simone Martin is soon to complete the Large Independent Racecourse trainee management programme

JCR’s Chief Executive, Paul Fisher along with the British Racing School and The Peplow Group created the JCR Management Academy in 2009 which has seen over 80 employees through the programme.  In 2011, The Jockey Club offered the Academy out to the industry at large to share in the benefits but still sends delegates every year.  There have been many success stories who are now in senior management at The Jockey Club with the alumni including Steve Parlett, GM at Kempton Park, Nadia Powell, GM at Market Rasen and Jack Parkinson, GM at Exeter.

A further initiative is the General Manager Training Programme which concentrates on one trainee General Manager at a time. The first was Liam Johnson, who was put forward in 2015, after he had forsaken jobs in football and leisure management to become a Regional Business Development Executive at Nottingham Racecourse.

“My ambition was a run a leisure venue, and in February 2015 I was lucky enough to join the new JCR Trainee GM Programme.

“Huntingdon is definitely a breeding ground for JCR managers, going back to Amy Starkey and more recently, Sophie Able, GM at Newmarket Racecourses.

The JCR programme is structured over two years and covers commercial management, people, marketing and finance, all centred around the racecourse, with the overall objective of successfully training an individual in the skill set required to become a General Manager.

Johnson’s experience around the group is typical of the level of detail and involvement attached to the programme.

Liam Johnson is following in the footsteps of illustrious company by taking the reins at Huntingdon

He recalls: “I started in February 2015, shadowing Ian Renton at Cheltenham for two months, which included the Festival. From there I went to Aintree in time for the Grand National meeting, working with the Operations team under John Baker, then on to Epsom Down for the Derby with Simon Durrant until mid-June, when I moved to Newmarket in time for the July Festival, working directly with Amy Starkey on the business side.

“That took me to the other East Region courses – Market Rasen, Huntingdon and Nottingham – and from there I went to Haydock Park as Assistant General Manager, which also brought in Aintree and Carlisle. Before I could finish the full two years of the programme, the Huntingdon job popped up and I started in July 2016.”

Johnson has had two successors on the JCR trainee scheme. Molly Dingwall, who came into racing via caterers Sodexo at Perth, joined JCR as Regional Conference and Events Business Development Executive for the North West region, based at Aintree, in November 2015, and moved to the Trainee Programme a year later. She was appointed General Manager of Carlisle in March last year.

Dingwall has been followed by James Wilcox, who got a taste of life in JCR with two months’ work experience in 2014, before joining full time as Event Manager at Sandown Park a year later. He became Regional Assistant Operations Manager in September 2017 and is currently halfway through the Trainee General Manager Programme, based at Epsom Downs.

Rising star: Molly Dingwall has blasted through the ranks to become General Manager of Carlisle

Summing up the experience, Johnson says: “Throughout the scheme the approach from everyone I met was ‘How can I help?’ It wasn’t a case of sitting in a classroom being told ‘This is how you do it’ from a management book on how to run a racecourse.

“It was real hands-on learning, and I don’t think I would have had this chance anywhere else. I can’t think of any organisations outside horseracing that provide such an opportunity.”

The Jockey Club also run a Trainee Clerk of the Course programme that follows a similar format and brings Clerks through the business and has seen huge benefits.

ARC has been running two programmes for seven years, refining them over time to today’s schemes – Under Starter’s Orders, which has a wide brief, and The Final Furlong, which is more specifically tailored to individual career needs.

Applications for Under Starter’s Orders open around October and after an assessment day usually involving up to 30 internal candidates, around 15 will be taken on the scheme.

Mark Spincer, ARC’s group operations director since December 2015, who oversees the schemes with HR director Jayne Greenman, explains: “It’s a 12-month programme, open to everyone on our payroll, part- and full-time, who attend a number of modules as a group over that period. The modules are run by senior managers within the group, and cover health and safety, catering, finance, racing, marketing and sales, HR and leadership, and PR and media.

“The programme gives people a real understanding of the business as a whole by covering conferencing and hotels as well as racing. Some are single-day events, but there are also dual days where people can network and bond, so as they grow through the business they have colleagues, allies and names to refer to.”

ARC’s Under Starters Orders programme is a popular course with staff across the group

Spincer estimates that around 50 people who have been on Under Starter’s Orders have been promoted within the group to a more senior role than when they applied. “We’ve lost some applicants to other leisure business, inside or outside racing,” he says, “but we regard that as a feather in our caps, and acknowledgement that we’re good at what we do.”

The Final Furlong takes a different path and works in single figures with no pre-arranged group sessions. “The aim is to identify the individual’s career path and help them to get the right training programme and qualifications, depending on what they are looking to achieve,” Spincer says.

To demonstrate The Final Furlong in action, he cites the example of Matt Pollard, explaining: “He was the second chef at Wolverhampton and head chef at Worcester but wanted to be an internal food safety auditor. We’d never dealt with this situation before, because it was a job we outsourced, so we paid for his training and qualification and now he works 50 per cent of his time for the group and the rest at Worcester.

“Matt’s had a promotion, has a new skill set and has been a massive asset to the business. He’ll probably move into the group full time in the next few months in a position we never knew we needed.”

Spincer adds: “One of the reasons for The Final Furlong is about growing our own people. It’s very difficult to find experienced senior management to come into this industry, because it’s so diverse, and we’ve had much more success from developing our own talent.

“There’s definitely a career path available, and ARC always advertises jobs internally before we go outside, because it’s our commitment to our employees that if they want a career, we’ll always look internally first. It’s good to bring in new blood, but nine times out of ten our internal candidates get the chance.”

*The Large Independent Racecourses are about to take on their second management trainee to succeed Simone Martin, who will leave York for Ayr after the Ebor Festival to complete her two-year assignment. The position will be advertised shortly on the Jockeys Education & Training Scheme, Careers In Racing and Racing Welfare’s Careers Advice and Training Services websites.