Horse racing stable lad slapped with huge ban after serious sexual misconduct

A stable hand who led up an Ascot Gold Cup winner has been handed a 32-month ban for serious sexual misconduct by a BHA disciplinary panel. David Hickin, 37, had spent 20 years working in racing, having risen to the position of travelling head lad.

In 2021, he led up the Mark Johnston-trained Gold Cup winner Subjectivist at Royal Ascot, though was employed elsewhere when the incidents took place. Hickin, 37, admitted the charges brought against him in a case involving three women, whose identities were protected and referred to as Persons A, B and C, during a period spanning May to July 2025.

Setting out the case, Silas Lee, representing the BHA, told the panel: "This case involves sexual assault, behaviour of a sexual nature, sexualised comments and abuse of a position of responsibility in respect of three young women."

Lee said Hickin "sexually assaulted and behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner towards a young female employee" and "he also behaved in a sexually inappropriate way towards two other young female employees.”

Lee noted that the most serious breaches of the BHA Code of Conduct related to 'Person A' and took place within a single day.

These included “making reference to making her wet and telling her she would give him a hard-on”, “running a pen between her legs, touching her leg without consent in the racecourse canteen, attempting to hug Person A and picking her up, wrapping his legs around her and forcefully pushing them against a horse box.”

He also watched her getting changed, “unclipping her bra and making a comment about the colour of her underwear” and posting comments in a social media post “to the effect of w*****g over her photographs.”

Hickin was also accused of abusing his position by pressuring Person A not to report his behaviour.

Lee told the inquiry that Hickin's behaviour had "profoundly affected" Person A, who said she had repeatedly told him to stop.

"Members of the public no doubt would be horrified to hear of the misconduct in this case and young women with an interest in the sport could be put off working in an area that they're very passionate for unless a clear message is sent that this is completely unacceptable and will be stamped out," he added.

Hickin said: "I do admit to what I've done and I do feel really bad about what I've done. I've been in racing for 20 years and nothing has ever happened or been complained about.

"When it happened and I got called into the office and got told about it, I said to the guy in the office, 'Can you tell the girls I was sorry because I didn't mean anything to come of this like that'."

He continued: "It happens in every racing yard, everyone laughs and flirts with all the girls and if everyone complained it'd be all over the media and even at the yard I was at. A few other lads were doing the same and obviously I just went along with it as well and thought it was okay, which obviously it's not because it shouldn't be and I know that especially with my age as well."

Hickin added: "I'm out of racing now, I don't intend on going back into racing anytime soon. I've enjoyed my time there and I thought moving to a different yard, try a higher job, and it's just obviously gone wrong."

Panel chair HH James O'Mahoney stated that the case had highlighted the need for a code of conduct, saying: "If that kind of thing is going on in racing, it must stop.

"All these cases involve some degree of sexual misconduct, different, of course, in degree in relation to C in particular and B as opposed to A."

He further noted that Person A "was on her own, apart from Mr. Hickins. She had nowhere to go to get away. They were out, the two of them, just for the day."

Amongst the factors taken into consideration when determining the sentence were "the age gap concerned, the difference in status of responsibility and seniority in the gradation in the yard, serious harm that we've heard was occasioned to her that she's described clearly, the risk to others if this kind of behaviour goes on, and the fact that pressure was put upon her not to take it any further."

The panel handed down a four-year disqualification for the charge concerning Person A, but reduced it to 32 months in acknowledgement of his guilty plea. He received disqualifications of one year and six months, respectively, for the charges involving the two other women. The sentences will run concurrently.