The five-day Glorious Goodwood festival this week promises renewed rivalries, including Scandinavia and Trawlerman reprising their Ascot Gold Cup clash in Tuesday's Goodwood Cup. The Sussex Stakes on Wednesday features Bow Echo, Gstaad, and Opera Ballo, while Diamond Necklace, the French Oaks winner, is lined up for Thursday's Nassau Stakes. Saturday's card includes the Stewards' Cup, one of the summer's biggest betting races.
Jockey Club staff cuts amid restructuring
However, racing rarely proceeds seamlessly. Last week, Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR), the biggest commercial operator in British racing, announced it will lose up to 30 staff after a restructuring overseen by Jim Mullen, former Reach boss who joined as chief executive in June 2025. The redundancy process is voluntary for now, but 30 jobs represent nearly 5% of a 650-strong workforce, and some compulsory redundancies may be required.
Jim Allen's departure a blow to Derby revival
The most surprising departure is Jim Allen, general manager at Epsom since October 2024. Allen was the originator and public face of Epsom's five-year plan to revive the Derby's status and popularity. He opted for voluntary redundancy instead of applying for a newly created role overseeing a 'London Hub' of tracks including Epsom. Allen told the Racing Post on Sunday he is 'sure [the five-year plan] will stay', though 'it will be tweaked and improved as there's still a way to go and it was never going to happen in one year'.
Allen grew up near the course and started his career as a work-rider on the downs. His path through racing includes senior racecourse management roles and a spell as a trainer in the United States. He may now return to a more hands-on role as a trainer or syndicate manager. 'It's all very amicable,' he told the Post, 'and I'm hoping I'll be back at next year's Derby festival with some sort of runner.'
Cost savings and £100m Levy deal
Allen's drive, enthusiasm, and focus will be a big loss to the Derby project, which aims to return to 100,000 attendance for the two-day Classic meeting. Mullen, who oversaw a 25% headcount cut at Reach, has targeted cost savings to arrest a decline in JCR's profitability. In March, Mullen signed an exclusive £100m, 20-year deal with hospitality company Levy to improve the raceday experience. However, JCR's 2025 accounts show costs—including wages and increased national insurance—rising faster than revenue.
'With that in mind,' a Jockey Club spokesperson said on Monday, 'we have been working over the past six months on a plan to ensure we have an organisation able to maximise the potential of investing the £100m … realised earlier this year. Our aim is to give our racecourse teams more autonomy when it comes to commercial decision-making and ownership of the customer experience at their venues. It is also about us creating a more successful and sustainable business that can play a larger role in supporting, investing in and growing the sport while promoting racing and the thoroughbred.'
Contrast with Ascot, Goodwood, and York
The job cuts contrast sharply with the mood at tracks like Ascot, Goodwood, and York, where the Ebor meeting takes place next month. It remains unclear how much JCR's profits depend on major National Hunt festivals at Cheltenham and Aintree, as accounts do not single out individual tracks' profit-and-loss figures. That only Cheltenham was left as a stand-alone entity in the restructuring likely tells its own story.
The Jockey Club, rooted in Newmarket and Flat racing, has become increasingly reliant on Cheltenham's success over the past two or three decades. The five-year Derby revival plan was a way to bring Flat racing—which has a global audience—back into the JCR mix. While many capable people remain at the operation's HQ, losing Jim Allen's passion for the project feels like a setback it could well do without.
