ABSTRACT
Racing is a sport with myriad sectional groupings, all of which seem to have formed associations to promote their views and protect their interests, be it the Horseracing Sponsors Association, the Permit Trainers Association or the Amateur Riders Association. Perhaps unsurprisingly in an industry driven by breeding interests, the first collective organisation in racing was the Thoroughbred Breeders Association, established in 1917. That area of the sport has also produced the Federation of Bloodstock Agents. Within the stables there is the National Trainers Federation, based at Lambourn, which is the trade organisation responsible for all licensed thoroughbred racehorse trainers in the United Kingdom. Its governing body has a council of 18 members divided into two sub-committees representing each major branch of the sport. In 2002 the membership was around 90 per cent of all licence holders. At the other end of the stable hierarchy is the Stable Lads Association formed after the famous strike of 1975. At that time the lads involved had been members of the Transport and General Workers Union, but many, especially those at Lambourn, felt that this was too large and too political an organisation, as well as one which did not know the intricacies of the racing industry. Helped by Lord Oaksey, an amateur-rider-turned-journalist, and Jimmy Hill of the Professional Footballers’ Association, the stable staff formed their own association with a former jockey and head lad Tommy Delaney as its first secretary.
