Racing Secretary Role

[Anonymous]

A male secretary? Why not! It’s always been a dream of mine to make a career out of my hobby so thought I’d give this a shot.

Been looking into this job recently and at various courses you can take to advance your career prospects, there’s the Racing Secretary Course at the British Racing School which costs around £200 and is a 3 day thing. The BRS also offer Racing Industry Qualifications (Level 1 and 2) which you sit an exam for after studying from their workbook.

Anyway, I’m curious as to the actual career prospects of this job? If I were to take the course would it be a lot easier for me to find a role or would it still be a bit of a struggle? To my knowledge it’s the sort of industry where it pays to know people, so would I find myself whoring out at local racecourses (Sandown, Kempton, Lingfield etc) trying to find a trainer who just happens to be hiring?

If anyone has any knowledge on this subject please let me know!

Thanks, Ben.

[lekha85]

Hi Ben,

My first ‘proper’ job in racing was as Racing Secretary to Lucinda Russell. It was a great job. I would ride 2/3 lots each morning and in between those and in the afternoon, I would be in the office.
Duties would be everything from entries and declarations to invoicing and wages.
Since then, IT systems have gone even further and many trainers are using specially designed programs to keep track of horses performance, training, treatments etc.

I am now a Clerk of the Course so the job does definitely lead on to other things. The experience of having worked in a racing yard serves me well in my current career because I have a far better understanding of the trainer’s life and methods than I would have done otherwise.

The best thing would be to keep an eye on http://www.careersinracing.com as the large majority of Racing Secretary jobs are advertised on there.

Good luck!

[Adrian]

Hi Ben,

I do give a talk on these Trainer’s Secretaries courses at both the BRS in Newmarket and at the Northern Racing College nr Doncaster.

They are usually over 2/3 days and you can check with the colleges exactly the length and agenda of the courses.

The Newmarket ones are particularly popular – particularly outside the flat season – with up to 16 people at a time.

In terms of future jobs their are often trainer’s secretaries roles coming up – either as part of a team at a big yard or as a stand alone secretary at a small to middle sized yard. Anybody able to either ride out first lot or do the accounts as well are particularly popular with trainers.

Most secretaries are female – probably due to the size of the salaries – but some of the best racing secretaries (for Gosden, Hannon and Varian to name a few) are male. There are often 1 or 2 men on the courses.

Definitely worth doing if you have aspirations to get into the administration side of racing. Ask me again if you need any details.

[Author]

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