FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - THERE IS STILL TIME TO GIVE DARBY MCCARTHY HIS RIGHTFUL RECOGNITION

By John Schreck | Monday, August 1, 2016

John Schreck, a former Chief Steward in both Sydney and Hong Kong, has seen both the colourful and the dark sides of racing. His wealth of experience and his deep knowledge of racing matters across the board is unquestioned and the reputation he built as a racing ‘lawman’ remains firmly entrenched in racing’s history. Shreck’s personal blog, ‘From the Sheriff’s Desk', appears exclusively on HRO.

Another racing season has ended and now some people’s thoughts will turn towards the various awards nights which will be held around the country after season’s end to acclaim the high achievers of the last twelve months.

Not every award winner is a unanimous choice. Not everybody who misses out is thought to have been hard done by. In the end, how people accept a particular outcome generally comes down to a matter of individual opinion.

Sometimes however, a case can be made for an oversight to be remedied.

Take Darby McCarthy for example. He is not in the Australian Hall of Fame.

It is really very sad he is not.

He should be!

Darby McCarthy grew up in Cunnamulla. He walked from Cunnamulla to Brisbane to be a jockey. He had basically no schooling but he taught himself and went on to converse creditably with all of the aristocrats in Europe and Australia.

There were probably better riders in their time than Darby McCarthy but nobody looked better on a horse than he did. He was really a wonderful jockey and a great, great credit to himself, to the sport and to his race.

Cathy Freeman has been quoted as saying, ‘Darby influenced me and encouraged me to strive for excellence in all that I do and to persevere against all odds and for this I will be forever thankful.’

That quote, in itself, says a lot about the man.

I’m not for a minute suggesting McCarthy led a pure life. If you rattle his cupboard you’ll find a few skeletons, like in everybody else’s cupboard. That’s the way it is.

McCarthy made his mistakes and suffered the consequences ... but his record of success in racing all over the world, the odds he had to overcome in so many ways to claim that success and the status that he rose to whereby he could inspire others ... these are all outstanding achievements.

McCarthy was inducted into the Queensland Hall Of Fame in 2004, but the national acknowledgement of giving him a place in the Australian Hall of Fame has yet to materialise.

There is no doubt in my mind that McCarthy deserves that recognition.

It is long overdue and I hope there is somebody out there who can run with that thought and make it happen.

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I want to place on record my support for racehorse owners at this time.

Without owners there would be no racing and yet, in my view, owners are taken too much for granted by the sport.

During the recent Brisbane Carnival they gave away a $150000 BMW to the winner of a trainer’s competition series.

The winner was entitled to his prize. He is very successful and good luck to him. I certainly have no problem with that ... but what did they give the owners?

Then, a couple of weeks ago we had the drama surrounding the Ride Guide concept in which jockeys were due to receive payment for pre-race-day comments about the horses they were going to ride ... clearly without having fully considered the position and the feelings of the owners who pay for that horse to be in training.

Owners in lots of places these days pay over a thousand dollars a week to have a horse in work. That not insignificant contribution never seems to be acknowledged.

As I said, it appears that owners are just being taken for granted as if they will just keep paying their thousand dollars or, if anyone drops off, somebody else will come along and take their place.

As the essential cog in the wheel, the way owners are treated does disturbs me.

It is my strong belief that they certainly deserve to be shown more respect!

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