Talking Horses: jockeys’ union exodus should worry everyone in racing

“E very ride, every jump, every battle, every fall, every day,” reads the main banner headline on the Professional Jockeys Association’s website. “We’re right here beside you.” But if the exodus of senior figures in the PJA continues at its current pace, there will soon be no one left to represent and advocate for the 450 or so men and women who, on a daily basis, accept the considerable risks attached to riding a half-ton thoroughbred at 30mph or more.

Jon Holmes, a leading sports agent whose clients include Gary Lineker, resigned as the PJA’s chairman last week, two-and-a-half years after replacing the industry veteran Nigel Payne in the role. Simon Cox, the union’s external director, and his fellow board member Mick Fitzgerald, a former top jockey and now leading ITV Racingpundit, have also walked away, leaving a sense of crisis hanging over the organisation.

Still in situ, for the moment at least, is the chief executive, Ian McMahon, whose CV when he joined in March 2022 included roles in football, rugby and golf, but no prior experience in racing. Amid the fallout from long-running inquiry which eventually saw Robbie Dunne banned for 18 months – which was reduced to 10 months on appeal – for bullying his fellow rider, Bryony Frost, and the PJA’s horribly ill-judged response to the decision, it was seen by some as a positive that McMahon arrived with a clean slate in racing terms.

He had a very tough act to follow, however, as his predecessor, Paul Struthers, had been a shrewd and effective chief executive during a decade in the role. He also had plenty of experience of the cut-and-thrust – and occasional low blows – of racing politics from his time as head of PR for the British Horseracing Authority.

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