We’re into June and it’s Royal Ascot next week! The sun is out and people who love racing are feeling pretty excited. In the meantime, there’s not only a Women in Racing event happening tomorrow but here at Racing Home we’ve also just released a brand new handbook that we’ve been working on for a while. It’s for both employers and employees in the breeding and racing world, including those of you who are self-employed, and providces information and advice on those who are thinking about a family, starting a family or are already parents. There’ll be a link in the shownotes to the guide which is called “Motherhood and Horseracing: Before, During and After Pregnancy Considerations for Parents and Employers” and we’d encourage you not only to read it but to send it on to anyone you think might benefit from it.

Which brings me neatly on to today’s episode where I’m chatting with Vicky Low who joins us from the sport of sailing. Our first non-horse-related guest! You might wonder what sailing and horseracing have got in common, and it turns out…quite a lot, and as CEO of The Magenta Project, which you’ll here about, Vick is at the forefront of developing an equitable and inclusive marine industry.

The team here at Racing Home are big on collaboration and have been exploring the state of play for parents, mothers in particular, in other sports, and how we can work together to create change across multiple sports together. This has led us to realise that there are a lot of similarities as well as the obvious difference that one involves boats and one involves horseracing.

Vic has become a real ally on some of the areas we’re working on here at Racing Home and we’re looking forward to announcing some further work later in the year.

In the meantime, enjoy this conversation.

Useful links

Find out more about The Magenta Project here

If you're not familiar, have a look at the Women in Racing Mentoring Programme (the Mentors 4 Mums Programme is is also now live!)

Check out the Racing Home website here (there's LOADS of useful info there)

Read the Women in Racing and Oxford Brookes research on working mothers in horseracing here

And finally, the Women in Racing website is here too!