Nicola McDermott, who has served as intelligence manager at the British Horseracing Authority for just over a year, is to leave her post next month, the Guardian has learned. It is believed she is taking on a similar role in another sport and racing’s ruling body praised her “excellent” contribution during her short spell at High Holborn.
Her departure comes at a time when morale is said by some insiders to be low among those charged with protecting the integrity of horse racing, following years of upheaval in personnel and policy. However, the BHA insists that a series of high-profile departures are not linked and serve, if anything, to show that its staff are attractive recruits for other employers.
“Nicola has made an excellent contribution to the BHA and brought significant expertise to the role,” a spokesman said. “We will miss her greatly, but wish her all the best in the fantastic new opportunity that has arisen for her.
“The BHA has a proven track record of recruiting first-class staff domestically and from racing regulators across the world and utilising the skills of experienced law enforcement professionals to keep our sport clean and fair. That’s why our integrity department is held in such high regard and other sports and regulators sometimes make offers that can’t be refused when they want to hire our staff.”
But recent years have brought turmoil to racing’s regulator. Adam Brickell quit as director of integrity in late 2016 when the crisis over the Jim Best rehearing was at its height. Jamie Stier left his post as chief regulatory officer the following year. Brant Dunshea eventually inherited Stier’s role last year, with Tim Naylor reporting to him as integrity director since November.
Chris Watts arrived at the BHA in 2017 after years of anti-corruption work in cricket to take up a newly created role as head of integrity assurance, though he is now referred to simply as head of integrity. Part of his brief is to kill off the BHA’s reputation for being slow to process disciplinary cases and the appointment of McDermott was supposed to be a useful step in that direction. Watts said at the time that her role would be “to look at intervention opportunities for prevention and disruption” of rule-breaking activity.
It took the BHA two years to appoint a new head of stewarding, a role that was finally filled last month. There is no word yet on a new head of raceday operations, a post which fell vacant in July when Emma Marley left for reasons that were not explained.
The theme of staff turnover at the BHA was addressed last week by the trainer Ralph Beckett, who told Thoroughbred Racing Commentary: “In this country, our regulator is failing, and that’s probably because those in charge are executives and they move on after a few years. Whatever we felt about the Jockey Club as a regulator, they had the best interests of the sport at heart because they all owned or bred horses, and we need people in charge again who have vested interests who will ensure the sport thrives.”
Responding to Beckett’s point, the BHA spokesman said: “The BHA blends specialist expertise from other fields with a core of staff with many years of experience in racing, as jockeys, in trainers’ yards, as owners and as dedicated racegoers. They’re passionate about the sport and proud of what they do to give racing a sustainable and healthy future.”
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