Members of Newmarket’s racing community have made the short-list for the Godolphin-sponsored Thoroughbred Industry Employee awards out of a bumper entry of more than 200.
The 2025 awards will be presented at a gala event at York racecourse in February, hosted by ITV Racing’s Rishi Persad with special guests double champion jockey Will Buick and three-day event Olympic team gold medallist Laura Collett.
The 13 Newmarket short-listed nominees are, in the newcomer category: Morgan Tidman, who works for trainer Sir Mark Prescott and Tina St John, who works for William Haggas. In the rider-racing groom category: Sarah McDonald, who works for trainer Julia Feilden and Shannon Moore, who works for Sir Mark Prescott.
Cheryl Armstrong winner of the leadership award last year with Ed Chamberlin of ITV Racing and top jockey William Buick. Picture: Dan Abraham-focusonracing.com
Christopher Constantine (Shadwell Stud), Jessica Buxton (National Stud), Fiona McGlone (Hascombe and Valiant Stud) and Tom Turner (Hazelwood Bloodstock) have been short-listed for the stud award, while in the dedication category are Helen Halliwell, who works for trainer James Fanshawe; Jane Smith, who works for John Ryan; Joe Scally, who is with Roger Varian; and Mike Marshall, who works for Charlie Fellowes.
Up for the community award is Alex Harvey, who volunteers at the Newmarket Pony Academy, where he helps with teaching youngsters who come from an alternative provision school and are struggling to engage with traditional teaching.
With £128,500 of prize money on offer, the awards are an opportunity to recognise those who work behind the scenes in racing. The next round of judging will see each of the six short-lists whittled down to three finalists, with the winners announced at the awards ceremony on February 25.
Flying groom Brian Taylor who won the 2024 dedication award. Picture: Dan Abraham-focusonracing.com
In this year’s final Newmarket had two category winners in Cheryl Armstrong, who works for Charlie Fellowes, and took the leadership award and flying groom Brian Taylor, who won the dedication award.
Nick Luck, television racing pundit and chairman of the awards judging panel, said: “My judging colleagues and I thought we had our work cut out last year, but these awards continue to go from strength-to-strength.
“This made for an extremely competitive process and gave our panel some seriously difficult decisions to make. We were particularly pleased to see the range of nominations across different categories, with good geographical spread and welcome representation from operations of varying sizes and disciplines.”