Ten-day Racing With Pride and Rainbow Laces campaign begins at Newbury on Friday

Day one of Newbury’s Coral Gold Cup meeting on Friday marks the start of a ten-day Racing With Pride initiative, tying in with the tenth anniversary of the Rainbow Laces campaign.

There will be fan zones and jockey signings at several meetings, with 24 racecourses with fixtures over the next ten days, including Sandown’s two-day Tingle Creek fixture, supporting the initiative.

Great British Racing will run a Keep It Up social media campaign, celebrating diversity and inclusion in the sport and recognising areas for improvement across the industry.

David Jones, a BHA board member, said: “The Racing With Pride celebration, which aligns with Stonewall’s wider sport LGBT+ Rainbow Laces campaign, is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate and showcase progress in diversity and inclusion.

“In the case of horseracing, this is not only the significant positive impact that British Racing’s official LGBT+ network Racing With Pride is making, it's recognising the efforts and actions wider racing organisations, groups and individuals collectively are carrying out in support of LGBT+ inclusion. 

“While we know there is still plenty of work to be done in this area, the Racing With Pride celebration is a key initiative to remind us all to keep up the progress and unite with wider sport and society.”

Racing With Pride was launched in 2020 and is designed for British racing’s participants, workforce and fans who identify as lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other sexual orientations and gender identities (LGBT+), as well as allies of the LGBT+ community who want to demonstrate their support.

David Letts, chair of Racing With Pride, said: “It's brilliant to be partnering, once again, with Great British Racing to deliver on our joint aim of making racing accessible and inclusive to as wide an audience as possible. 

“Visibly demonstrating our commitment to the LGBT+ community through this activity sends a clear message to people within the sport and beyond that racing takes this matter seriously.

“This year’s theme of Keep It Up provides a useful prompt for us to reflect on the progress which we have made in recent years, while acknowledging there is still much work to be done.”

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