Horse Racing: Maths at the Races Adds Up to a Winner for Schools Scheme

The perils of deforestation would have been an appropriate lesson at Lingfield yesterday, as a wind with a sub-zero chill factor whipped across all the open space where the trees used to be, back in the days before the all-weather track, when the venue was known as "leafy Lingfield".

Instead, it was applied mathematics for a group of 13-year-olds, measuring the circumference of the parade ring before working out how many horses it could accommodate. At the same time, in the warmth of the weighing room, another group is listening to Derek Byrne, who won the Scottish National on Four Trix, as he explains why maths matters to jockeys.

"When I left school, I thought I’d left science and maths behind," he says, "but when I became a jockey, I found I couldn’t have been more wrong. I needed them all the time with weights and distances, and when I rode abroad, I had to be able to change kilograms into stones and pounds, and meters into furlongs."

In all, there were 45 children from four schools in the south-east and south London at Lingfield yesterday, as their classroom moved on to the turf for a day. Almost 10,000 pupils, from reception classes up to A-level students, will make a similar trip this year, under a scheme run by the British Horseracing Education and Standards Trust (BHEST). Its aim is "to make young people more aware [of racing] both as a spectator sport and a career path," and on yesterday’s evidence, it is an impressive success.

"I grew up in Brighton, and I can remember going up the hill on race-days when I was a child to stand by the fence and watch the horses come by," Joe Haywood, accompanying a group from Oxted School, said. "It’s the sort of thing that makes a lasting impression.

"From my point of view as a maths teacher, the best thing about a day like this is that it gives you a chance to show the children how maths can be applied to real situations in everyday life. You can tell them about it in the classroom as much as you like, but when you see things at first hand like this, it’s much more effective."

The BHEST scheme, which hopes to expand to 20,000 individual visits within four years, is carefully structured around the national curriculum, and subjects taught on previous days include science, design and technology, business studies and geography. The schools involved pay nothing beyond the cost of getting the pupils to the course and feeding them.

In the short term, the tracks involved hope to attract new race goers, and all the pupils at Lingfield yesterday went home with a voucher for free admission for their parents at a meeting in April. In the longer term, meanwhile, the idea is clearly to nurture the next generation of spectators, although the nitty-gritty of betting, which pulls so many people through the gate in the first place, is the one subject that is not discussed in detail. That, in time, they can discover for themselves.

"I’ve not noticed horse racing much before, but I love animals, and once you know more about something, you’re more likely to find it exciting," John Howcutt, from Warlingham School, south London, said. "It’s been really interesting, we’ve seen a lot about how it works and now I think we understand a lot more about it."

Several pupils felt that the climb up to the top of the stand to see the photo- finish equipment was the highlight of the morning, as did, for that matter, most of their teachers. There was also a trip into the jockeys’ changing room - something that 99 per cent of regular race goers have never seen - and a look at the recycled waste rubber and plastic that is Lingfield’s much-praised Polytrack racing surface.

The moment when it all came together, though, was 1.40pm, when the first race started right in front of the stands. From huddling near the grandstand in the tail-end of a sleet shower as the runners were loaded, all but a handful found themselves tugged towards the running rail as if by an invisible cord as soon as the race started to develop. As Treetops Hotel crossed the line a head in front of Majehar, to the great delight of several who had picked him out, most were as close to the action as they could get.

"If that reaction is anything to go by," Haywood said, "then there are a few race goers of the future there." The seeds had been sown, and some, at least, had surely found fertile ground.