Former Ascot Gold Cup lead rider banned 32 months for misconduct

A former stable travelling head lad who helped lead Subjectivist to Gold Cup glory at Royal Ascot was disqualified from British racing for 32 months after admitting serious sexual misconduct toward three young women.

David Hickin, 37, admitted breaching racing’s code of conduct for his behaviour toward two 18-year-old women and a 22-year-old woman, identified at the hearing as Person A, Person B and Person C. The incidents took place between May and July last year at an undisclosed yard, and the disciplinary panel heard that Hickin made repeated sexualised comments, touched two of the women without consent, watched one of them change clothes and pressured Person A not to disclose what had happened.

The panel also heard Hickin tell Person C, “I’d give you one” if she were not with her partner. Hickin represented himself at the hearing and apologised to the three women. He said he had seen other lads behaving similarly and had gone along with it, but admitted it should not have happened, especially at his age.

The British Horseracing Authority said written reasons for the decision would follow. The punishment arrives against a backdrop of renewed scrutiny over safeguarding in the sport, where the regulator has been under pressure to show it can deal decisively with abuse as well as race-riding and licensing issues.

That pressure has been building for some time. In December 2023, the BHA said it had investigated more than 350 safeguarding and human welfare concerns since 2018, with a high proportion involving sexual misconduct, bullying and abusive conduct. The regulator also said 14 licensed individuals were under interim suspension pending criminal or safeguarding investigations. Later that month, BHA chair Joe Saumarez Smith and chief executive Julie Harrington apologised on behalf of racing, saying: “This has no place in British racing or wider society.”

Hickin’s name also carries unusual resonance because of where he once stood in the sport. He was the groom pictured leading Subjectivist back after the horse’s 2021 Ascot Gold Cup triumph, a win ridden by Joe Fanning and one that gave Mark Johnston his fourth Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. The Gold Cup remains the leading staying race at Royal Ascot, and Hickin’s earlier role in that scene makes the scale of his fall from grace especially stark for a sport already wrestling with how to protect vulnerable people inside its own yards.