'The threat is still very much there' - Jockey Club chief urges racecourses to be ready for more animal activist disruption

Jockey Club chief executive Nevin Truesdale has warned that the threat of animal extremists renewing attempts to disrupt racing has not gone away, and urged all racecourses across Britain and Ireland to be ready to face more challenges similar to the protests that were witnessed at the Grand National and the Derby this year.

Truesdale was addressing the 57th conference of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) in Paris, an all-day event where the core theme was how to improve animal welfare.

After giving his audience an inside view of the Jockey Club's efforts during the spring and summer to protect Aintree and then Epsom from Animal Rising's aim to bring Britain's two most iconic races to a halt, Truesdale spelled out just what a serious threat he felt the sport had faced down.

"I would say our social licence was on the line here in some ways because of the spotlight that was shone on us," he said. "We talk a lot in these sort of forums about all the good things we need to tell Generation Z. This was a clear-and-present threat."

Asked if he was braced for a return of activist interventions as the core jumps season in Britain approaches – either from Animal Rising or potentially another group that decides not to publicise its intentions in advance – Truesdale said: "We have to prepare for that possibility from now on.

Jockey Club chief executive Nevin Truesdale addresses the IFHA conference in Paris

"A number of sports went to a meeting with the UK Home Secretary in July and we had some very senior Metropolitan Police officers at that meeting. The intelligence from those police officers was that the threat was very much still there, but that the number of people had significantly diminished."

Truesdale warned: "There is scope for that to reverse, so this coming jumps season and well beyond we need to be ready for those threats. The threat from Animal Rising was telexed to us in advance. I’m not quite sure why they decided to do that – it did help us.

"It’s something that we don’t think has gone away and all racing operators in the UK and Ireland need to be ready for it."

The morning session of the conference was given over to a keynote speech on racing in an evolving society from Natalie Waran, chair of international equestrianism's Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission.

Waran spoke of how crises in horse welfare, such as the spate of catastrophic injuries at Churchill Downs and Saratoga this year, can lead to a tipping point, past which racing could lose its social licence and the 'permission' of governments and wider society to self-regulate.

Arguing that it was impossible to know where that tipping point in public opinion would come in any given circumstance, Waran said: "If you don't do something about the biggest issue, which is horse welfare, and make sure the foundations are solid then, when the tipping point comes it will actually push it too far.

"If you've got the baseline right, you've got money on the bank."

Julie Harrington (right) and the FEI's Natalie Waran exchange views during the IFHA conference

In the panel discussion that followed, BHA chief executive Julie Harrington spoke of the need for racing to take the public with them, and of the importance of large-scale polling and other data projects British racing has undertaken in terms of social attitudes to the sport.

"In any sector there will be extremes," said Harrington. "I think what we need to be interested in is 'what do the majority of reasonable people think?'

"Transparency is one of the ways we can shift that dial. But to have transparency we need great data. We need to know that what we are saying to the general public is true."

Read these next:

It's nearly the end of the supposed 'summer of chaos' - so where does racing stand in the battle with Animal Rising? 

118 arrested as 2023 Grand National delayed after animal rights protesters storm track at Aintree 

'Deplorable, reckless and dangerous' - BHA and Jockey Club slam Animal Rising for failed protest attempt during Derby

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