A field trip with a difference as Newmarket pupils get a taste of racing and breeding

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Here, Martin Stevens joins some racing industry workers and fans of the future in going behind the scenes for Dubai Future Champions Education Week – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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The youth of today get a bad press. When I was at school, lessons resembled something out of the Bash Street Kids. Bullies at the back of the class fired spitballs at the swots at the front, bored pupils drew pictures in their exercise books and everyone stifled sniggers as a demoralised teacher told us we would need to get our rubbers out.

Since observing a group of Year 8 students from Newmarket Academy (pictured below by Mark Westley Photography) as they toured Dalham Hall Stud as part of Dubai Future Champions Education Week on Monday, I'm convinced standards of schoolchildren have risen sharply.

They were all remarkably attentive and engaged as they were given a primer on racing, breeding and Godolphin by the operation’s UK charities manager Penny Taylor, and shown Dubawi and Too Darn Hot and the facilities by the stud team.

The pupils watched a video on the daily routine of William Buick in awed silence, took part in a quiz on the locations of Godolphin’s operations around the world, and were shown one of the surprisingly heavy Dubai World Cup trophies at the stud, and the even more surprisingly light saddle and riding boots of a jockey.

Smartphones came out when the stallions strutted their stuff, as stallion handler Max Nudd patiently answered a flurry of questions. Yes, a horse really can be insured for £60 million, and no, that isn’t a bump caused by a saddle, it’s the withers.

There was one hairy moment in the covering shed, when a girl put her hand up and asked with heartfelt concern ‘do you have to go in and pull it out if it gets stuck in the mare?’, which caused the guides to exchange nervous glances and fumble their words.

But upon further questioning it turned out that she thought she was still in the foaling unit, and so she was reassured that yes, grooms were always on hand to assist with birth complications.

Dubai Future Champions Education Week, part of the Newmarket Academy Godolphin Beacon Project and run in association with Racing to School for the past nine years, also took in visits to other important racing locations in town, including the British Racing School, Newmarket Equine Hospital and Tattersalls.

The programme culminates today in the pupils heading to the Rowley Mile for the Newmarket Academy Godolphin Beacon Project Cornwallis Stakes – surely the only Group race in the world named in honour of a local school.

The trophy will be presented to the winning owners by the four students on last year’s course who showed most interest and completed their exercise books with the best, most detailed answers. It’s a hotly contested competition that had this intake diligently jotting down notes.

Taylor, a former head of sponsorship at Newmarket racecourses, explained that Dubai Future Champions Education Week was mutually beneficial for the racing and breeding industry and for the local schoolchildren.

“The idea behind the Newmarket Academy Godolphin Beacon Project is to give the young people in Newmarket an opportunity to learn what this industry is about,” she said. 

“They are often remote from it, as it's so closed off from them, so what we want to try to do is give them an understanding of why the town is such a special place.

“It’s interesting, I was just talking to a group today and I asked ‘how many of you walk your dogs on Warren Hill?’ 

Outside the offices at Darley's Dalham Hall in NewmarketCredit: Mark Westley Photography

"A few hands went up. So I said, ‘Well, if it wasn't for horse racing and breeding, you wouldn't have that, that would be built on as happens in more urban areas. You wouldn’t have all these wonderful green spaces.

’“I always think we're asking a lot of local kids to stop and let the horses cross the road in front of them, but who ever tells them why? Or asks whether they might be frightened by them? It's unique to Newmarket, so it’s crucial to tell them about the context of it, and help them understand the sport and industry that surrounds it.”

The important point, that the racing and breeding industries offer the pupils numerous career paths, is driven home.

“They’re often surprised that those job opportunities are not necessarily working directly with horses,” continued Taylor. 

“They can pursue careers in hospitality, catering, agriculture, gardening, IT, finance, media, photography, almost anything, really; there are so many things they can do in our industry.

“We run between 30 and 35 initiatives per academic year, with different jumping off points for different careers. They can do a maths day at the racecourse, they do a media day, we take them to the local air ambulance that Godolphin has an association with, they go behind the scenes at the vets, where they can learn about all the equipment involved in pathology or scintigraphy.”

Dubai Future Champions Education Week is for Year 8 pupils aged 12 or 13, but the projects to tell local children about the industry begin when they are much younger, when their minds are more malleable.

“There is the Under Starters Orders programme, delivered by Racing to School and supported by Godolphin and the Jockey Club, for local primary schools,” said Taylor. 

“The children come here in Years 5 and 6, when they are eight or nine, and have a look around the stud and the National Horseracing Museum, and then we get all the schools together and they visit the National Stud and then go racing on the July course.

“There is also the Newmarket Pony Academy at the British Racing School, which is supported by Godolphin. It gives the children a feel for racing, before we bring them back in Year 8, when they are 12 or 13, to learn more.”

This all sounds more fun, and far more useful, than the field trips I went on with my school. I still remember the barely suppressed yawns and bored shuffling of feet as we were forced to look at the nearly non-existent remains of the local abbey and displays of arrowheads and earthenware in our municipal museum.

The Newmarket Academy kids are far more engaged as they are treated to a behind-the-scenes glimpse of state-of-the-art studs and taken inside the winner’s enclosure on a big day of racing, unsurprisingly.

Stallion inspection time at Dalham HallCredit: Mark Westley Photography

“The students genuinely love the whole week, even if they aren’t thinking about pursuing a career in the horseracing industry,” said Danielle Dawson, a teacher at Newmarket Academy who coordinates the week on the school’s side.

“For a lot of them, it’s nice just to understand more about what’s on their own doorstep. A lot of them know Tattersalls is there, but have never been inside and don’t know what goes on there. They know we have the Heath, but they don't always know the importance of it to the town.

“Some of the pupils might not have thought much about a career in the industry but they will see something in the week and think, ‘I want to do that’, and then they can explore the skills they need to fulfil that role. And even if they aren’t that interested in what they see, that can be valuable too; I always say that finding a job you don't want is as valuable as finding one you do.”

Dawson said it is difficult to measure the impact of the programme on students, as they eventually go off into the big wide world and don’t always keep in touch with the school about their career choices, but she is certain that it is overwhelmingly positive.

“Sometimes the benefit can be as simple as building confidence, responsibility or resilience,” she explained. “Those attributes are hard to quantify. The easiest way to measure the impact is through the number of students who have gone into a career within the industry.

“Some of those students are still in contact with us if that's the case, and they come back and speak to students about what they’ve done. Some of our Year 11s from last year now work for the Jockey Club catering team, and others are working in yards, or have gone on to do courses at the British Racing School.”

Another beauty of education week is that, while more studious pupils will get lots out of it, less academically inclined children can also enjoy it and be introduced to vocations that don’t involve books or computers.

“There are some students that may struggle with routine learning, being in a classroom and so on, and it's really nice to see them shine on these visits in other aspects of things they do,” said Dawson. “Some really surprise you by asking the most amazingly insightful questions. They almost become different people on this programme, which is really lovely to see.”

Taylor confirmed that even some pupils who can normally be disruptive become transfixed by the subject of racing and breeding. Matters that would have induced sniggers in my class are dealt with maturely, eventually.

Learning the ropes - for what could be a future careerCredit: Mark Westley Photography

She said: “In some years we’ve shown a video of a mare giving birth, which has often provoked a bit of reaction: the odd embarrassed laugh or expression of disgust. But it’s really interesting, because they soon become absorbed in what’s happening, seeing the foal attempting to stand up.

“Then you can have a bit of a joke with them and say go on then, how old were you when you started walking? That foal managed it far more quickly than you. It’s all about making things relatable to them.

“We don’t go into the details of covering too much. They see the covering shed and some of the brighter pupils probably get it, but I leave that with the experts when they do the tour of the stud. Ask Max the stallion man!”

I did, and Nudd said: “The kids ask a lot of questions, which is good. Some are innocent questions that aren't about the horse but about what we do, what our routine is. They seem genuinely interested in everything.

“It’s always fun telling them about the values attached to the horse, as I don’t think they can believe how much one service by a stallion is worth, they think that’s the price of the horse himself. Some of them probably don’t realise that there’s more to racing than horses in training, that there’s more to it than meets the eye.

“It's a nice thing to do because these children are the future of the industry. Even if they don't eventually work in it, they might get into horseracing, attending meetings at Newmarket. We need that. I’m always impressed by how engaged they are.”

Nudd admits that he became “sick” of full-time education in his own youth and so, as a former keen pony club competitor, applied for a job as a stallion handler at the Royal Studs in Sandringham, and was successful.

He wishes that he’d been given the sort of glimpse into the industry that the Newmarket Academy Godolphin Beacon Project affords.

“I was always into horses as a youngster anyway, but I didn’t have a clue how to get into racing so I definitely think seeing the different parts of the industry and understanding all the careers available would have been useful,” he said.

“It’s even more important for these children who go to school in Newmarket, as they see horses around the town and it's such a big part of our community.”

Newmarket Academy students aren’t being funnelled into working with horses, though; far from it. The point of the Godolphin-assisted educational programmes is to demonstrate that racing and breeding requires skill sets that are relevant in any number of other fields. If they are inspired to get involved in veterinary work but choose to do so with small animals, then so be it.

“After Year 8 and up to GCSEs they can peel off into smaller groups and participate in activities that fit it in with their studies,” said Taylor. “If they’re interested in photography or media they can have sessions with John Hoy or Lydia Hislop at the racecourse, for example.

Lydia Hislop: broadcaster gives insight into the media for pupils interested in the subjectCredit: Edward Whitaker

“To enhance their study of STEM subjects [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] we can facilitate visits to the Newmarket Equine Hospital or Rossdales, or send them off to the air ambulance.

“I had one girl in the early days of the Beacon Project who told me she didn’t want to work with horses, so I asked her what she did want to do. She said physiotherapy. I spoke to the school and took her to Peter O'Sullevan House so she could see that there were physiotherapists on her doorstep who were trained to look after sports people.

“There isn’t much that a child can express an interest in that we can’t find a way of showing them relates back to breeding and racing. There are so many opportunities.”

Godolphin’s educational programmes are not unique to Newmarket, as they are repeated in communities local to their other bases around the world – in Ireland, France, the UAE, the US, Australia and Japan. It's nice to think that every breeder who uses a Darley sire is contributing to that good work in a small way.

Fair to say the title sponsors will be roaring home one runner in particular in the Newmarket Academy Godolphin Beacon Project Cornwallis Stakes on Friday. Coto De Caza, a daughter of Sioux Nation who finished a close third in the Harry Rosebery Stakes last time, is set to be partnered by the course’s star alumnus Harry Davies. 

The former Newmarket Academy pupil was one of the four children who were top of the class in 2017 and invited to judge the best turned out and present the Cornwallis Stakes trophy to winning connections in the following year.

A photo of Davies in his Newmarket Academy uniform on the winner’s rostrum is the crowning glory of Taylor’s presentation to each new intake of pupils.

“We show that picture of Harry wearing the same blazer and tie they’re all wearing in the room, and then a picture of him in his Godolphin silks,” she said. “There’s no better demonstration of where racing can take you than that.”

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