TALK ABOUT A JOCKEY SPRAY. THIS IS ONE FOR THE AGES

By Graham Potter | Thursday, October 23, 2025

Talk about giving a jockey a spray. This will go down as one for the ages.

When Maureen Haggas was asked on Racing TV how the visiting William Haggas trained horses Sam Hawkens and Lake Forest had come out of their races at Randwick last Saturday. This was her reply.

“Well, Sam Hawkens we have sold, so he was just going to go down there for that race and then go to Tom Charlton. So, he’s gone.

“Lake Forest, as far as I’m concerned … he never had a race.

"It was about the worst ride I've seen in my entire life. I was appalled, absolutely appalled.

“We went all that way, and … I mean I don't know Zac Purton at all … but it was just dreadful.

"So disappointing.

"Everyone knows he's a horse you have to … tell him he's got to do it. And he knew that, he was told it, and he just sat there, like a big sissy.

"I was horrified.

"We'd gone all that way at that huge expense on the owners' part … it just makes you realise how lucky we are with the jockeys we have in England, Ireland and France, when you compare them to the rides (from Purton and James McDonald we got on Saturday which were really shockingly awful."

It was hardly a ‘how to win friends and influence people’ type exercise, but Maureen Haggas is entitled to her opinion and, in this instance, she certainly pulled no punches in delivering it.

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