Brexit threat to Grand National racehorse trainer
Many Clouds trainer Oliver Sherwood is concerned about his eastern European workers after the UK leaves the EU.
Tuesday 14 March 2017 06:47, UK
One of Britain's top racehorse trainers says he fears that a hard Brexit and its impact on migrant stable staff from eastern Europe could lead to him quitting the sport.
Oliver Sherwood - trainer of 2015 Grand National winner Many Clouds - has sent out more than 800 winners in his illustrious career.
But he worries that the current shortage of stable staff could be exacerbated by any sudden change to UK immigration policy.
"I will be packing up, if it stops like that overnight, then we are in real trouble," Mr Sherwood told Paste BN at his yard in Upper Lambourn, west Berkshire, where a number of the staff are from Slovakia.
"The first thing my head lad said to me the morning after Brexit was 'does that mean we will be kicked out and have to go back home'?
"I told him nothing is set in stone and hopefully it won't happen."
Racing contributes £3.5bn to the economy and directly employs around 17,000 people across the country. But many stables struggle to recruit and retain staff and the worry is that Brexit will make the process even more difficult.
"I do think work ethic has a part to play in this in England," added Mr Sherwood.
"They don't want to work weekends, you're working early hours in pouring rain sometimes, in winter. It sounds OK to begin with, but when shove comes to push they would rather work 9-5 and have a two hour lunch break. And those days are gone."
The sport's regulator insists nothing will change for at least two years, regardless of Brexit, which it sees as an opportunity for racing, if there is a new immigration policy.
"There's a lot of effort going into this," Gavin Jefferies from the British Horseracing Authority told Paste BN.
"It's not just about the BHA, this is a cross-industry effort. We are working with the racing colleges, the National Trainers Federation, the Racing Foundation and Racing Welfare on this.
"We're not just looking at recruitment and education in training, but how we can better understand what kind of working practices will best encourage people to come into racing and stay."
Tens of thousands of racing fans will descend on Cheltenham today for the start of the famous four-day festival.