© Photo Healy Racing
21 of the 31 staff at the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (RACE) in Kildare are to be made redundant following a restructuring of the facility overseen by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI).
HRI appointed an interim CEO to RACE six weeks ago when issues arose regarding the safety of accommodation blocks on the site.
Initially all 31 staff were placed on notice as the interim CEO, Darren Lawlor, did a root and branch assessment of all aspects of the business. Now just 10 of those staff will remain as RACE changes its focus going forward.
All kitchen staff, security staff and academic teaching staff have been let go as part of the restructuring.
RACE, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, will no longer have students living on site and the traditional ‘Trainee Jockeys course’ is to be scrapped.
The 42-week residential Trainee Jockey course, which normally saw around 20 hopefuls enrolled each year, is to be replaced with 3 separate shorter courses. Past pupils of the Trainee Jockeys course, which began in 1977, include Johnny Murtagh, Seamie Heffernan, Chris Hayes, Shane Foley, Brian Hughes, Sean Flanagan and Daryl Jacob.
It is proposed that there will now be a 12 week ‘Elite Apprentice’ course (6 weeks in RACE and 6 weeks in job placement) with a maximum of 8 applicants. This course will be funded by HRI’s education and training department, Equuip.
There are also plans to hold a work riders’ course and a foundation course for yard hands. These courses will be funded by the Kildare and Wicklow Education Training Board which previously funded the Trainee Jockeys course. Both of these courses will have a minimum of 12 students and will each run for 24 weeks (12 in RACE and a further 12 weeks in job placement).
In the case of all three new courses the students will no longer live on the campus and the courses will no longer have an academic element.
The 38 horses housed at the RACE facility are to remain on site, but it is yet unclear who will tend to them as much of that work, including mucking out duties, would have previously been carried out by the students on the Trainee Jockey course for 42 weeks of the year while they lived on the campus.
