January 2016 contents 3. Showcase 2016 18. RCA Race Planning 4. Inside Track - York 19 Sponsorship 5. Inside Track - York 20. Medical / Badges & PASS 2016 6. Racing attendances top six million 21. RaceTech for first time since 2011 22. RacTech 7. GBR 23. Technical 8. GBR 24. Technical 9. GBRI 25. Technical 10. Racing Together 26. RCA - Who We Are 11. The Racing Foundation 27. RCA - What We Do 12. Racing Welfare 28. RCA- Groups & Committees 13. BHEST 29. Diary Dates/ Contributors' Contact 14. Five Minutes of Fame List 15. Racecourse in Focus 30. Job Board 16. Racecourse Prizemoney 31. Job Board Initiatives 32. TRIC 17. Racecourse Prizemoney Initiatives Showcase 2016 Save the Date! The RCA is delighted to announce that Showcase 2016 will be staged at Doncaster Racecourse on Thursday 17 November The seventh annual marquee event for racecourses will Racecourse, added “Doncaster Racecourse is proud to once again be based around the ethos of excellence have been invited to host the RCA Showcase & Awards and innovation, and will provide racecourses with an 2016. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone opportunity to share best practice with peers and hear here on 17 November for an insightful programme from those at the cutting edge of the wider sporting, of seminars followed by the prestigious Showcase leisure and retail worlds whilst competing for the Awards which celebrate excellence and innovation at coveted Showcase Awards in the evening. Racecourses” Racecourse Services Director Caroline Davies The official launch of Showcase 2016 will occur later in commented “we are thrilled to be heading up to the year, when booking arrangements will be confirmed Doncaster for Showcase 2016. The Racecourse and invitations issued. Services Team enjoy a good relationship with Kieran, Mark and the team at Doncaster and I am certain the Doncaster will be hoping to build on the success of event will live up to the exceedingly high standards set previous years when they were crowned Showcase by Epsom Downs, Lingfield Park, York, Haydock Park Champion in 2011 and more recently best in Events for and Ascot in recent years. their Christmas Live spectacular. “Doncaster and ARC have been strong supporters of the Showcase since its inception and we look forward to welcoming racecourses to the event on 17 November.” Kieran Gallagher, Executive Director of Doncaster For more information, please contact Paul Swain. Jan 2016 3 back to menu Inside Track Inside Track York Defending Showcase Title York Defending Showcase Title WHILE chief executive William Derby whether it’s prize-money or facilities. experience, is the culture of learning Horsemen were at the heart of appropriate to the course. how we assessed it at the end of and his team surveyed the soggy from other racing and sporting developments that York completed the year,” he says. They had a lot of scene at York racecourse over the “The fact that the groundstaff team venues. for last May’s opening, and the “We want people to aspire to have helpful guidance and feedback from last few weeks, thoughts had already are so willing to discuss what they do project’s success was reflected in winners at York, so we created a the RCA team, and the whole process turned to sunny summer days and with others in the industry, as well as “For example, it shows itself in the Showcase award in the Owners’ circular winning connections’ area of learning and sharing is a credit to defence of the title of Showcase mentor other head groundsmen, is an the way we look at other food and Experience category. just by the parade ring, with an iconic the RCA and the raceday experience Champion 2015, not to mention a illustration of how we try to share best beverage businesses, such as in group.” White Rose award for the Yorkshire practice. trendy coffee shops in London, to see tourism event of the year. whether we can borrow or steal ideas Now comes the hard part – building “Adrian is a director of the Institute from each other or elsewhere.” on the success of 2015 but without the Already named top track in the of Groundsmanship and involved at benefit of a £10 million development separate Racecourse Groundstaff an industry level across all sports, York’s success in the Showcase Food to work around. Champion category, York went on which is a great ambassadorial role & Beverage category was based on to scoop the sections for Food & for racing itself. He regularly talks a presentation titled ‘From pizza to Derby says: “The team have a track Beverage and Owners’ Experience to groundsmen at Premier League parfait, from rose to red berry cider’, record of developing and innovating, in the Racecourse Association’s sixth football grounds, Wimbledon and and centred on a regional aspect and we are keen to keep moving annual Showcase Awards, leaving the rugby league and cricket grounds, and served in stylish facilities. forward. We are working on a number judging panel with a relatively simple that cross-sharing and fertilisation of of projects during the winter. For task of declaring the overall champion. ideas is as important in their world as Derby explains: “We’re very lucky instance, we want to improve the it is in racecourse management.” to live in a county where we buy our experience in the picnic area in the Reflecting on the achievement, vegetables, meat and fish locally and Derby says: “This aspect has shifted building where after the race they can centre of the course, for people Derby says: “It’s great for the team, Sharing ideas and best practice have a huge focus on home-made, up a gear everywhere, but for us it celebrate appropriately. coming racing at a lower cost than the because so many people contribute has been an evolving feature of fresh food, delivered in a style and a was a case of tracking the whole main enclosures, and we’re looking to to the events, the racedays and the the Showcase concept, and Derby way that offers excellent quality and journey for the owner, starting with “The response has been fantastic. make more of the heritage of the old whole venue, so it’s rewarding to get believes it comes through in York’s good value for money, and is served the entrance, where we wanted We had a record number of runners in Edwardian weighing room. recognition for that hard work. results. in great facilities. people with a runner to be made 2015, and a record number of owners’ to feel welcome and special, in an badges issued and lunches served, “These are physical projects, but “We are the first to acknowledge environment that reflected the quality all done to a level of personalisation. at the same time we have to go on that all racecourses have fantastic of the racing. These are very important measures to applying best practice from elsewhere, elements and experiences to them, us, because they tell us whether we starting by carefully going through and to be noted by a peer group “So we’ve got the Sir Henry Cecil are achieving our objectives.” all the other Showcase submissions. where quality and experience keeps gate and the Frankel statue to give a Some things we’re already doing; rising is a great accolade.” flavour of history and heritage to the And so to the overall award as some are applicable to us and we’ll be arrival, while our owners’ club area Showcase Champion, which Derby looking to develop them for our own As well as completing a new is very exclusive, greatly positioned says depended greatly on the huge use, and others are more bespoke to development at the northern end of with the parade ring and the track amount of thought and work put in by the individual racecourses so wouldn’t the course, York has invested heavily adjacent. marketing manager Amy Swales and apply to us. in turf management, and to win the her team. Groundstaff Award again gave Derby “The way we have structured our “You can’t rest on your laurels. The special pleasure. catering, beginning with a dedicated “The general idea of our presentations bar keeps getting raised, in terms manager who knows the owners was to capture the essence of of both the competition and our “No grounds team lives in a perfect and can welcome them, is tailored innovation and what we’ve tried to do customers’ expectations. At the same world, because every track is to what an owner wants, when they differently, reflecting what we wanted time, we’ve also got to keep raising connected to its climate and soil and want to eat, and to a quality and style to do from the start of the year and our own bar.” local conditions,” he says, “and it’s no secret that York, amongst a number of other racecourses, is a difficult piece of land to manage. “That’s what’s so pleasing about the “What was pleasing about the “Our team have now won the award whole momentum of the Showcase Showcase process was not three times in the last five years, process success over the last six necessarily the impact of the big which is a great tribute to them and years,” he says. “In general we’re capital investments we’ve made the leadership of head groundsman not competing against each other but the little touches that the judges Adrian Kay. It also demonstrates but against the High Street and said they liked, the elements that the importance placed on the racing experiences elsewhere, and one of made the new areas individual and surface by the York Race Committee, the reasons we’re so positive about special, which were an example of which puts the focus of everything we the Showcase process, especially empowering the team to run with an do on the horse and the racing action, the day’s seminar and workshop idea.” Jan 2016 4 back to menu Jan 2016 5 back to menu Racing Attendances Top Six Million for First Time since 2011 The Racecourse Association (RCA) is investment, planned and prospective.