Foxtrots, false starts and fumbles as racing stars channel their inner Strictly - all for a great cause

"Slow, lunge, lift up your knee, she walks around you, spin her, put your feet together and start again."

Those may be the most unusual instructions a jockey has ever been given here at Thirsk. But we are here on a most unusual evening.

Rather than a trainer planning how to overcome a wide draw on the seven-furlong course, the words are from instructor Joel Chapman in the Chestnut Room of the owners and trainers' suite planning how to overcome a serious lack of dancing experience.

The field of ten assembled at 6.30pm in the autumnal twilight may have got the T-shirts – proudly proclaiming they are part of Racing Come Dancing – but they most certainly have not been there or done it before. The odd spot of 'dad dancing', cavorting on the floor at the hunt ball at 2.30am or shaking a leg at a wedding after a few gin and tonics is about the sum of what the ever-patient instructor has to work with.

Hayley Clements and Becky Smith with teacher Joel ChapmanCredit: Louise Pollard

Yet the one thing Chapman and accomplice Debs Camacho – who knows a thing or two about racing as sister-in-law of trainer Julie Camacho – can count on during an intense two hours is enthusiasm and willingness to learn. There is no danger of finding any non-triers among a group assembled primarily in order to raise money for Racing Welfare, the charity that provides vital support for the workforce and is needed more than ever in these troubled times. 

Ask Andrew Thornton, who was not only quick to answer the call when it came but also to volunteer his friend, Kevin Darley.

"All the racing charities are great causes," he says. "We all do anything we can for any of them. I started as a stable lad and I know that Racing Welfare is there for everybody in the game.

"When they asked if I'd fancy doing it, they were looking for two more people. So I said, 'What about Kevin, he'll do it, don't worry. I'll rope him in'."

Alyson Deniel and Andrew Thornton, with instructor Debs Camacho in the backgroundCredit: Louise Pollard

Which is why the Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey and the former Flat champion are getting those instructions from the inspirational Joel – a terpsichorean Aidan O'Brien in dancing shoes rather than shades – as they start to become acquainted with the foxtrot.

They are walked through the steps four or five times before being joined by their partners – Alyson Deniel, former amateur jockey and now assistant stud manager at Garrowby Stud, and Helen Wilson, a front-line worker at Racing Welfare.

Every 15 minutes there is a changeover, with Derek Thompson and his wife Caroline, plus Becky Smith and Hayley Clements from Micky Hammond's yard, hitting the floor to learn the jive.

Now, far be it from the Racing Post to reveal the secrets of the training ground, even if we did have a gallops watcher with Anton du Beke's eye for a well-executed chasse on our payroll. This is a competition and there are six other couples eyeing the final at York on November 8.

But after the odd early stumbles, people ending up facing in opposite directions, cries of: "God, your hands are cold", or: "I'm overthinking the head a bit", the couples are soon zig-zagging across the floor in a way that belies the fact this is all very new.

The words you start to hear are from the instructors – "beautiful, that was really good"; "Shirley Ballas would be very happy"; "all the steps are there". Plus the odd "your leg really needs to go into his space".

Teacher Joel Chapman with Becky Smith and Derek ThompsonCredit: Louise Pollard

As on the racecourse the other side of the wall, interference can be an issue so couples occasionally have to wait their turn. In one pause, a dancer can be heard marvelling: "Can you actually believe what we are doing?"

Thornton admits later: "It taxes the brain. The first half an hour of learning is mind-blowing but once you get into it, you suddenly click."

An observer is also reminded of one essential fact about racing. Everybody really wants to win.

Look around at those waiting for their turn to be called back to the floor. Yes, they are by the bar – because that is where they can find space to practise the moves they have just learned.

Tables and chairs are shifted to make room for impromptu foxtrotting and jiving, punctuated by shouts of: "Don't look at your feet", or: "Smile, go on, smile" – "I can't, I'm concentrating!" Even: "Those two are going the wrong way"; "Sssssh, don't tell them that!".

Smith, who signals things are getting serious when she ties her hair up in a bun midway through her first session, is another more used to using her legs to ride winners and says later: "I didn't have dancing lessons when I was young, a hippo in a tutu comes to mind, but we're absolutely loving it.

"Hayley, my partner, can actually dance – she's never learned, she's just got good rhythm and picks things up quickly. 

"I don't think I'll be giving up racing for a dancing career but we're competitive people. The odds are against us but there's nobody in this room who doesn't actually want to win."

Hayley Clements and Becky Smith, with teacher Joel Chapman looking onCredit: Louise Pollard

The person responsible for getting those competitive juices flowing is Racing Welfare chief executive Dawn Goodfellow, who had the idea of a Strictly Come Dancing competition to follow on from previous staff boxing nights.

"When we do fundraising events, we're also trying to generate awareness of ourselves and get community engagement, as the Furlong Factor talent contest did during Covid and got everyone talking," she says. 

"I'm a great fan of Strictly and I hoped this would be something that would engage the racing community. And it does seem to have done."

So popular has the concept been that a southern version at Newbury has had to be added and Goodfellow says: "We've been surprised by how many people have stepped forward – and who."

They include Goodfellow herself and husband Mike. This is not an organisation whose chief executive has a great idea and then expects the staff to get on with it; whatever she might have hoped for.

Dawn and Mike Goodfellow in perfect unisonCredit: Louise Pollard

"I was bullied into it!" she admits. "I resisted for quite a long time until I was given a good, hard shove.

"I'm not a dancer and never have been. Mike claims he had dance lessons in his mid-teens but he's 76 and we worked out that was probably 60 years ago!"

Which is why they are here, taking part in a rehearsal of the group opening number, although the waltz they are learning closer to home remains under wraps.

It will be unveiled to the public at York next month and Goodfellow, who would think nothing of making a speech to a thousand people and completed the Great North Run less than two years after doing the 'Couch to 5k' programme, is dreading it.

"I'm loving the lessons and the process of learning but the thought of dancing in front of a couple of hundred people leaves me so petrified," she says. "Even coming this evening and doing it with a few other people terrifies me."

Helen Wilson and Kevin Darley go through their stepsCredit: Louise Pollard

When it is suggested the audience will all want her to shine, mindful of what she and her husband have put themselves through in the hope of raising a vital £50,000, she disagrees and says: "They want us to make fools of ourselves, I'm sure."

Which is where a jockey is different. You don't win a 1,000 Guineas, St Leger and 2,500 other races without being able to perform when it really matters.

Asked how he will feel when the L plates are thrown off and he will be dancing for the judges next month, Darley says: "I think it will be more fun. I don't know what it will be like for everybody else but you rise to the occasion, don't you? I certainly thought I performed better under pressure. We'll see!"

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Read more:

Racing stars sign up for two nights of 'fun and glamorous' dancing spectacular in aid of Racing Welfare 

'Racing Welfare got me back on track' - London Marathon bid for Tattersalls' Ross Birkett 

Single mother of two helped back from serious knee injury running the London Marathon for Racing Welfare 

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