Apprentices or Cheap Labour? Time to Reform Working Models in the Thoroughbred Racing Industry. By Divya Gurnay.

Friends, my fire is not anger, it's  conscience, and the thoroughbred industry, if it is to survive with dignity, needs exactly that.

There is a 19-year-old boy standing in the dark at 4:10 a.m. He is far from home. His mother thinks he is “working with horses” — a romantic phrase that smells of fresh hay and glory. In truth, his hands are cracked from disinfectant. His back aches from lifting water buckets. His left thigh still bruised from a filly that double-barrelled without warning. He earns less than a city barista. And yet, on Derby Day, the owner will speak of “our team.” This is the moral fracture in modern racing.

In India, I have seen boys as young as twelve or fourteen, slogging it out, to be fed on chilly lentils soup, so poor, that even dogs would reject, but the owner is passing it off as charity kitchen, or langar. A dumb charade , or should I say, a load of  fake charades.

The Disguised Structure: When Apprenticeship Becomes Cheap Labour.
Apprenticeships are meant to be structured learning pathways. Historically, they are passed down craft, horsemanship, veterinary basics, conditioning knowledge, and the ethics of animal care. But in too many yards/farms today, the term “apprentice” masks a different reality:
• Long hours (12–14 hours common in peak season).
• Stipends below minimum wage.
• No formal education component.
• No insurance coverage clarity.
• No written contract.
• No grievance mechanism.
• No structured certification at completion.
In such systems, “learning” becomes incidental. Productivity is the true expectation. The economics are obvious. Labour is the largest recurring cost in racing. A rotating stream of young apprentices keeps payrolls low and dependency high.  But this model is short-sighted. Because exploitation drives away the very talent the industry desperately needs.

Why Reform Is Urgent — Not Idealistic.
Three converging realities make reform not optional, but urgent:

1. Talent Drain.
Educated, capable young people leave within 2–3 years. They cite:
• Instability.
• Poor pay progression.
• Lack of career pathways.
• Social isolation.
• Physical risk without security.
Racing cannot modernize if its brightest light is the exit.

2. Legal Exposure.
Under many vocational and labour frameworks globally (including India, UK, and Australia), apprentices are entitled to:
• Written apprenticeship agreements.
• Structured training modules.
• Defined stipend progression.
• Safe working conditions.
• Insurance coverage for occupational injury.
• Maximum working hour protections.
When yards blur the line between “trainee” and “employee,” they risk regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage.

3. Ethical Credibility.
Racing increasingly speaks of horse welfare. But human welfare is inseparable from equine welfare. Overworked, undertrained staff make mistakes. Mistakes injure horses. Thus human reform is horse reform.

The Reform Blueprint.
Let us move from outrage to architecture.
1. Standardised Stipend Structures.
Industry-wide minimum stipend benchmarks tied to:
• Year of apprenticeship (Year 1, 2, 3 progression).
• Cost-of-living index of the region.
• Hazard allowance for track and handling risk.
• Overtime compensation.
Transparency is critical. When stipends are standardized across licensed yards, undercutting disappears. 
Owners pay entry fees in lakhs and millions. A small percentage earmarked into a Workforce Welfare Fund could transform lives.

2. Educational Benchmarks (Real Apprenticeship).
Every apprentice should complete certified modules:
• Equine anatomy & physiology.
• Biosecurity and infectious disease management.
• Injury prevention and ergonomics.
• Nutrition and conditioning.
• Mental health awareness in high-risk yards.
• Labour rights and contractual literacy.
Certification should be portable. A groom in Mumbai should be employable in Melbourne because training standards are recognized.
That is how you dignify craft.

3. Written Contracts — No Exceptions.
Every apprentice must receive:
• Clear working hours.
• Stipend terms.
• Injury insurance documentation 
• Accommodation terms (if provided).
• Grievance redressal mechanism.
If an owner insists on professionalism from a jockey, the same standard must apply downwards to a groom.

4. Welfare of grooms & Insurance Mandate.
Stable work is high-risk:
• Kicks.
• Crushing injuries.
• Zoonotic infections.
• Chemical exposure.
• Long-term musculoskeletal damage.
Mandatory accident insurance pooled at industry level should not be optional. It should be licensing compliance.

5. Mentorship — Not Just Supervision.
There is a difference between being managed and being mentored. Each apprentice should have:
• A designated certified mentor.
• Quarterly review conversations.
• Clear path to promotion (senior groom, assistant trainer, equine technician, etc.). Without pathways, apprentices stagnate. And stagnation breeds attrition.

The Empathy Trigger: The 19-Year-Old Far From Home.
Let us return to him.
He came because he loves horses.
He stays because he has nowhere else to go.
He leaves because he realizes love does not pay hospital bills.
Reform is not charity. It is retention strategy.
If racing wants educated youth — veterinary graduates, equine science students, biomechanics enthusiasts — it must prove that dignity is not reserved for the owners’ enclosure.

Empowerment: What Apprentices Should Know.
Under most vocational and labour frameworks, trainees have rights to:
• Fair stipend (not token allowances).
• Safe working conditions.
• Medical support for workplace injury.
• Written apprenticeship agreement.
• Freedom from forced unpaid overtime.
• Non-discriminatory treatment.
Education in these rights should be part of onboarding — not whispered in secrecy. When knowledge spreads, exploitation shrinks.

The Business Case for Reform.
This is not anti-owner. It is pro-industry. Reforms lead to:
• Lower turnover costs.
• Higher horse care standards.
• Reduced injury-related downtime.
• Better public image.
• Attraction of educated workforce.
• Stronger regulatory stability.
The most successful racing jurisdictions globally have already begun formalizing apprenticeship frameworks. Informality is no longer competitive.

A Call to Stakeholders.
Owners: You celebrate courage in a horse. Show courage in governance.

Trainers:  A well-trained apprentice becomes your future assistant — and your reputation.

Racing Authorities: Licensing without labour reform is incomplete regulation.

Journalists and Advocates :  Keep telling these stories. Change begins in narrative before it reaches legislation.

Let the Story Go On.
The thoroughbred is bred for endurance, but endurance without fairness becomes suffering. If the industry wants to continue telling stories of glory, it must ensure that those who wake before dawn to make those victories possible are not forgotten in the dark. Let us reform apprenticeships into what they were meant to be, a gateway to mastery, not a corridor of quiet exploitation.
©️  @🧘DG.🐎
Advocate at Indian High Courts. 
Academics:- LL.M, LL.B., PG Human Rights, MA. Mass Communication and Journalism, B.A. Honours Psychology.
Special Skills Certifications :-
1. Film-direction and audio-visual story-telling certification from FTII, Pune, 
2. MOI. Qualified Mountaineering instructor from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, India.
Equine Education and Skill sets:-
- 'Stud Management and Sales Consignment Graduate with honours' from National Stud England.
Certifications from the online campus of International Federation for Equestrian Sports, Switzerland (FEI): -
1. Handling Horses.
2. Handling horses in challenging situations. 
3. Equine Behaviour.
4. How Horses Learn.
5. General Conformation.
Certifications from the online campus of Michigan State University (USA): -
1. Normal Horse Behaviour.
2. Horse Handling.
3. Horse Manners.
4. Horse Hygiene/ Grooming.
5. Basic Horse Keeping.
6. Training and Exercising horses.
7. Machinery and Chemical Safety
8. Traveling with Horses.
9. Biosecurity for Horse Farms.
10. Healthy Horses.
11. Employer/ Employee Relations.      
        (in Equine Industry)

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