About this reference

Editorial note · Updated 19 May 2026

The training college at Doncaster, known until 2019 as Northern Racing College, was for thirty-five years one of two officially recognised institutions in Britain that prepared young riders for jockey licences. It ran a residential foundation course, a portfolio of stable-management qualifications and a regular summer pony racing camp from its yard on the outskirts of Doncaster. Following its merger with the British Racing School the operation continues at the same site as part of the National Horseracing College.

This site keeps a small reference library on the subjects most people arrived looking for: how a rider qualifies as a jockey in Britain, what the various BHA licences allow, how the official aftercare charity works, and how the Weatherbys archive holds the whole system of records together. The entries are written as plain editorial reference. Nothing here is a betting recommendation, nothing is a tipping service, and the site carries no affiliate links to bookmakers or breeders.

Sources

Entries draw on the published rule books of the British Horseracing Authority, the public information pages of Weatherbys and the Retraining of Racehorses charity, and the trade press of British racing. Each entry is dated; substantive changes to the rules of racing are reflected as the BHA publishes them.

Contact

Correspondence about factual corrections is welcome at the address on the contact page. The site is maintained as an editorial project on a slow update schedule.