Cover image courtesy of Inglis
In Sunday’s entry to our winter series, Vin Cox asked the industry one overarching question: how do we get the one-time racegoer to keep coming back? The industry must not rely on racing as a family tradition or the allure of the party atmosphere to build the next generation of participants.
Cox pointed out that the sport already has its access points, but more must be done to bridge the divide between access and integration.
“Once people get the racing bug, it does not leave them,” he said. “The job is to give more people a proper chance to catch it.”
What do other sports and jurisdictions do already that we can apply on home soil?
Face to face
Real, face to face experiences are undoubtedly the best way to make a connection. The industry already does this in a lot of ways that it can continue to build on.
Ironically, one of the inspirations behind Britain’s National Racehorse Week - the inspiration for the Australian version - can be traced back to criticism of Australian racing.
It was conceived after British trainer Richard Phillips heard Taylor Swift would not perform at the Melbourne Cup because of welfare concerns surrounding Australian racing. Rather than dismissing the criticism, Phillips saw it as evidence that racing needed to open its doors.
“I got the idea because I heard that Taylor Swift wouldn’t perform at the Melbourne Cup, because her fans believed racing was too cruel,” Phillips said. “That was a turning point for me. I could see us having no hope of returning if we didn’t do something about that. The industry and the racehorse is something to be celebrated, and it wasn’t exactly splitting the atom to suggest that.
“I think if the majority of people get to understand the industry, they will be in favour of it.”
Richard Phillips | Image courtesy of Richard Phillips Racing
That single idea has since grown into more than 200 open days across Britain each year. It became the inspiration for Australia’s National Thoroughbred Week, which attracted more than 5,000 attendees across 84 events in its inaugural year and expands to two weeks in 2026.
National Racehorse Week takes place in the last week of the British school holidays, with the explicit purpose of making it as accessible for families and children as possible.
“Research suggests that from the age of four or five, you develop your passions for the rest of your life,” Phillips said. “So we were keen to get families and young people in. I think it’s so important to bring young people in, and hopefully it is something that will resonate with them for the rest of their lives.
“For me, it’s really about getting close to the horse. I believe once a young person touches a horse and has that up-close experience with them and enjoys it, they will probably enjoy horses for the rest of their life.”
Phillips is a big advocate for showcasing retired racehorses at race days and bringing horses into the community to build that bridge between what takes place on the television screen and the living, breathing athletes at the sport’s centre.
“I took a racehorse to the African Caribbean Centre in the city of Leicester and people were stopping their cars to come take a picture,” he said.
Living Legends residents regularly visit Victoria’s metropolitan tracks, but what Australian racecourses could do is supercharge this.
The biggest racedays provide the perfect stage for letting the public meet past winners of the country’s biggest races. If people come to the Everest, they should be able to meet Nature Strip (Nicconi) on the way to the party.
Bring the information to the people
On Saturday, the first Foal To Finish Line forum will take place at Newmarket before racing commences. The forums will take the form of short seminars aimed at introducing racegoers to the world of bloodstock and sales, and critically inviting them to get involved in bloodstock themselves.
“It is our aim to encourage people to come to public auctions and to hear more about how they can get involved in the bloodstock world,” said sales consignor Jamie Railton, who conceived the idea.
“Not many people realise they can come along for free to see the potential champions of tomorrow.”
Taking the information directly to the public doesn’t need to stop at seminars on raceday either.
Equitana Melbourne was for three decades the largest equine exposition in the Southern Hemisphere, and played host to seminars and demonstrations across the spectrum of equestrian disciplines. While its 2027 event has been cancelled, it lays the blueprints for where racing could expand its audience.
Equitana Melbourne | Image courtesy of Melbourne Royal
Parts of the industry could host a panel at a similar event and invite an audience already confirmed to be horse lovers to ask the questions. Populate the panel with people representing all parts of the industry - a breeder, a trainer, a jockey, a bloodstock agent. Here is where you convert people, by giving them open, honest answers and inviting them to ask more.
Likewise, this is where outreach to schools can really shine. The local race track should be a mandatory trip location for schools in the area, and content on the day should complement the age group visiting while showing them the world they could be part of.
In 2021, Godolphin rolled out the blueprint for this in Britain, by assisting with the opening of the Newmarket Pony Academy. The five-day course for primary school-aged children focuses on teaching equine care in a way that integrates core school subjects into the learning experience.
Pupil at Newmarket Pony Academy | Image courtesy of Newmarket Pony Academy
Finding a following
Personality is an engagement driver in almost every sport. If you talk to a football fan, they likely have a favourite team and a favourite player. If you talk to a Formula 1 fan, they can pick out a favourite driver.
There are plenty of podcasts and media programs following racing, but the skew is in the direction of punting, and while this is undeniably a part of racing, there remains the opportunity to follow the people and the horses more closely.
We have produced documentaries on Winx (Street Cry {Ire}) and James McDonald, but we need the reach to be further. Can the industry invest more in series catered to the public who are less familiar with racing? Can we push for more social media content on the everyday realities of racehorse life and follow horses through their preparations?
The new Thoroughbred Championship Series in the United States sets out a six-race path where participation is the way to win. For horses to be eligible for the US$5 million (AU$7.12 million) prize pool, they must participate in at least four of the six races. With the races broadcast nationally on NBC and FOX, people can tune in to watch horses they grow to know compete against one another at each stage.
Can we invite influencers into the game? Can we replicate the back-stage, exclusive access offered to prominent online content creators that is seen at Disney theme parks, at movie premieres, and at other equestrian events in the interests of letting them do the promotional work for us. Allowing and encouraging these kinds of people access to the sport gives us access to their viewership and a potential new audience of interested people.
And when people want to learn more, what can we offer them beyond the racetrack and special events? Phar Lap has been the centrepiece of one wing of the Melbourne Museum for more than 90 years. Could we open our own museums and give the documentaries we have already created a perpetual home as part of displays that educate and entertain.
Ultimately, we have to cultivate a love for the animal at the centre of it all. The thrill of racing isn’t possible without the Thoroughbred.
Giving people purpose
If we are investing in making the next generation of owners, we need to ensure that there are the next generation of trainers, jockeys, breeders, and support staff to prepare their horses.
“Looking after animals is incredibly rewarding,” Phillips said. “You can learn so much from working with horses - patience, discipline, caring for something.”
Perhaps a leaf could be taken out of Coolmore’s book; the 2026 iteration of the Coolmore Careers Fair at Fethard Town Park in Ireland was visited by more than 900 students, some 200 more than the inaugural event in 2025. The fair promoted careers across the whole spectrum of the racing and breeding industry, from farrier demonstrations to race-riding simulators and beyond.
The fair also provided the connective tissue between students and tertiary education institutions offering educational pathways into the industry. Thoroughbred Breeders Australia and the majority of principal racing authorities offer a range of industry-specific courses and training, and we need to ensure that we are maximising the people coming through the door.
Something emphasised by Phillips - who studied equine care at a technical college - was the importance of making sure there are multiple pathways into the industry that don’t require a degree, and making sure people are aware they exist.
Pony racing and its connections to Pony Club Australia are already building foundations for the next generation of jockeys. Principal racing authority-sponsored show classes and representation at equestrian events showcases the versatility of the Thoroughbred and incentivises people to interact with the breed and foster a love that could draw them to racing itself.
Pony racing | Image courtesy of National Pony Club Series
But not everyone wants to be a jockey or a trainer, and they need to know what other roles they can do and how they can get to that position. They need to be guided by people passionate for the subject, and interested in passing that enjoyment on.
“You have to have good mentors who are willing to teach,” Phillips said. “If you have a teacher who is enthusiastic and makes a subject really engaging, you become more interested yourself. We have a duty to do that for young people, and it’s the responsibility of all jurisdictions internationally to make that happen.”
If you can turn people into proper fans of the sport, working within the industry is something to aspire to.
How to measure this
Measuring the impact of this outreach is the harder question. The immediate answer is to look at metrics across the industry; raceday attendance changes, the click-through rates on event advertising and social media content, the uptake at events hosted during National Thoroughbred Week and throughout the year.
A survey can only reach so far, dependent on the kind of people who want to fill one out and contribute their opinion, and where we would ask them to fill it out. It can give a snapshot in time of people’s feelings, which is a starting point - perhaps one is automatically emailed to every raceday ticket purchaser the day after the races.
Perhaps the metrics need to be measured over years. If the industry can unify and make a concerted effort to welcome people in, the tide will shift towards more share owners over the next sales seasons. Perhaps we can watch and see if the foal crop decline can plateau, or trend back upwards.
The Racing Australia Factbook provided us some of these important metrics before, particularly on wagering and attendance. In the absence of these easily accessible indicators, we find ourselves without a clear rudder to steer the industry in the direction of meaningful change.
