Racing Pathway to reveal plans to attract Generation Z to racing

The first concrete plans under the umbrella of the Racing Pathway are due to be formally announced in the next few weeks, and diversity and inclusion advocate Josh Apiafi is confident there are some important solutions to the sport's generational time bomb contained within the project.

The website promises three defined collaborative pathways into the sport. They will be targeted at a more diverse audience than racing currently caters for, with the aim of securing a future workforce and fanbase from within Generation Z – defined as people born between the mid 1990s and the early 2010s.

"As we sit here today, we're on a precipice," said Apiafi, whose consultancy has done much of the proof-of-concept legwork on racing's behalf up until this point.

"Some of our KPIs [key performance indicators] don't look too bad. Our media rights are higher than they’ve ever been. But if we don't engage Gen Z those media rights are going to drop off a cliff."

Apiafi added: "Not everybody is going to love horseracing but it's about being an option, we've got to give them the opportunity to become a fan."

The strategy has three clear strands to it and builds on work carried out over a number of years. The apprenticeship and stable staff route is well established, but the vision is for a parallel non-rider employment pathway that has never existed below graduate level, while the third pathway deals with developing future fans.

The key planks of the new drive to recruit young people into racing at entry level include non-yard based apprenticeships – a programme pioneered by ex-Jockey Club Racecourses executive Lee Moulson – and the foundation of a young person's racing club.

The three strands of the Racing Pathway projectCredit: Apiafi Associates

Plans for the first Racing Media Academy will be unveiled next week. The project is backed by the Racing Post, Sky Sports Racing, Racing TV, TikTok and ITV. It is one of three programmes being funded by the Racing Foundation.

Another idea that builds on the popular and successful Racing to School is the Parents' and Guardians' Discover Racing Week, which next August will invite the families of those pupils back to the racecourse to discover for themselves the attractions of the sport as a potential career for their children.

And work will be undertaken to ensure that racing is promoted more effectively on the careers-advice software used in most schools.

The Racing Pathway will focus keenly on increasing the diversity of the fanbase and workforce, something Apiafi's teenage focus groups stressed was of high importance to them, along with a commitment to climate action and the need for the sport to be more technologically connected.

"It's basically about getting ourselves in front of people," said Apiafi, "but rather than trying to do it ourselves – which we’ve tried before with the likes of the Step On Track programme – what we need to do is utilise partnership networks.

"There are lots of organisations, inner-city organisations – because background diversity is something we're really going after – and youth training schemes. So it's about utilising a partner network.

"Proud and Gifted work with people from an ethnic minority background and celebrate their achievement. They've got huge databases but we've never tapped into them."

Details of the ambitions and programmes can be found at racingpathway.com.

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