Vicki Gibbins reflects on the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury

Ideas aplenty at Future Of Racing summit

By Vicki Gibbins

Horse Racing

Tue February 10, 2026 · 3h ago

Vicki Gibbins attended the Future Of Racing summit in London on Tuesday and left with a positive outlook after hearing all the pitches.

Inward-looking, insular, blinkered.

At times, all fair accusations levelled at the racing industry.

I see no evidence of that outlook at the Future Of Racing summit, held at the Flutter offices in London on Tuesday.

There is a hum of excitement in the room as the great and good of racing congregate, intrigued and excited to hear new ideas.

They’re not just here for the blueberry muffins.

There are sweaty palms and disguised nerves from the ten start-ups invited to present in a five-minute Dragon’s Den style pitch, whittled down from one hundred applicants.

This is your moment, show us what you’ve got.

The morning session is centred around horse welfare, one of the key areas identified by the BHA’s Project Beacon as a barrier to engagement.

I’m initially sceptical of the opening pitch. Sleip is a gait analysis platform, enabling users to record and upload videos of racehorse movement for AI assessment.

I’ve worked in the wider equestrian industry for, gulp, decades and always been taught to trust your eye. Horse not looking sound; there’s a narrative to play out. Lean against a stable door or crouch to knee level, watch horse trot-up, whistle through your teeth before the pronouncement of ‘no, not right’.

Head Of Growth and Partnership Per Hassbring quickly changes my perspective. With regular input, Sleip can track movement changes, identify likely problem areas and arguably most importantly, provides a body of wellness evidence for each individual horse.

Already used by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Racing Victoria and NYRA, Sleip should help reduce injury rate and assist veterinary teams at international meetings to understand the individual’s gait.

The BHA are trialling the system, and I can see why. It’s innovative, interesting and fits Project Beacon’s aims of improving equine welfare.

As Animal Welfare Assessment Grid’s Sarah Wolfensohn rightly points out, during her presentation of welfare monitoring software - ‘we needed to be pro-active, not re-active’.

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The other welfare pitches shine a spotlight on different issues. The Konektt equine care management platform aims to bring together ‘information scattered across people and paper’ in a racing yard, encouraging trainers to utilise staff knowledge in search of increased performance. According to the polished presenting duo of Linda Nguyenova and Amardeep Sirha, the time of the whiteboard, epicentre of any busy stable, is over.

A brief break precedes the afternoon session, focused on fan engagement.

Erwann Lomppech-Levenvu, Chief Operating Office of e-nano, and Ian Stryckers from Raw Stadia pitch technology to improve the recording and analysis of racecourse ground conditions.

e-Nano’s opening statement of ‘racing’s main variable is the least measured’ and Ian’s tongue-in-cheek comment that ‘I don’t want people to need a PhD to understand ground conditions’ sum up the crippling problems with the going. Manual ground recording can be subject to user error and the information supplied is not always easy to understand in a betting context.

I’d not expected to come out of the day feeling inspired by a ground-testing robot or the shock-absorption rate of different surfaces, but here we are.

Fraser Ralston, founder of Horsebox, clearly understood the gravity of the event and was ready to embrace the opportunity - which he did, with a clean and engaging presentation.

The pitched Horsebox platform provides a central location for users to find syndicate opportunities with horse particulars and terms of the ownership agreement clearly listed. The website is a gateway for ownership on any budget with a transparency currently unavailable in the market.

Fraser provided the most thought-provoking soundbite of the day.

“Most racegoers don’t engage with racing like you do.”

He’s right. We sit at home, dedicated professionals and loyal fans alike, in judgement of the methodology behind encouraging engagement, new and old, into the sport. We forget that ‘all racehorses are well-looked after’, ‘form-guides are straightforward to understand’ and ‘having a bet is easy’ are not guaranteed go-to thoughts.

I leave, muffin in hand, with hope.

We’ve got the ideas, so let’s do something about them.

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