To celebrate National Careers Week we headed to Kingsley Park, North Yorkshire and Charlie Johnston Racing and caught up with one of the team there Dominic, Racing Secretary. Read up on what Dom has been up to since being on the British Horseracing Development Programme in 2022

How long have you been in this role?
Hello all, I’m Dominic and one of the Racing Secretaries at Charlie Johnston Racing. I have been at Johnston Racing for 20 months now.

What was your background into the horseracing industry?
Although I have, since I can remember, had a very keen interest in horseracing, it wasn’t until I went to Hartpury University to study for a degree in International Horseracing Business that I had thought about working in the industry, and more so the many different roles that are available. After graduating from there I was lucky enough to be offered a placement on the British Horseracing Development Programme in 2022, and from there I was offered a path to work in industry imminently upon finishing the 2-week course, working two 6-month placements under the Racing and Betting Team and Participant Services team. After the end of my year there the opportunity arose to become a trainee racing secretary at Johnston Racing and I have been here since!

What does a normal working day for you involve?
A normal working day starts at 7am and runs till 2pm, and although no two days are the same, we run to two strict deadlines. The first of these is at 10am when we need to have declared any runners for meetings in 48 hours, and the second of these is at 12pm for entries. There are a lot of other administrative tasks to be done within the day as well and these cover a wide variety of bases, but the main focus at least to begin with is to make sure that horses are entered and declared by these deadlines.

If you do travel to the racecourse what responsibilities would you have?
We do get the opportunity to go racing, often with our in-house partnership runners. When on course the most important thing to do is to look after Owners, as they are so important to a successful training operation and to racing as a whole and can be so often overlooked. Therefore, it is vital that they receive the best possible experience, both on and off the track.

What is the best part of your job?
When the yard has a winner, it is underplayed how much goes on prior to reaching a racecourse, never mind winning! It is a long process and can be hard to appreciate the hard work that goes in from the entire team, starting with Mark and Charlie at the sales, through to the riders and grooms working with the horses every day, with it hopefully culminating with success on course! I am a small cog in a very big wheel, and the few minutes a race is on for is a very small percentage of what has gone on prior to that moment that most people see.

Is there a challenging part of your job?
Like any job there are always challenges, some can be very minor and others can be slightly more difficult to deal with, luckily I work alongside two fellow secretaries who are very experienced and it allows us to spread the workload, it has also given me very good grounding as I have learned a great amount off them both since starting and this has made it a lot easier to move into a new role within the industry.

What one piece of advice would you give to someone seeking to work in the industry?
I think the most important thing anyone can do is to take up as many opportunities as they can, as what comes with this is the chance to meet people and network, and this can always lead to further opportunities down the line.