LARRY’S VIEW - IT WOULD BE A SIMPLE LIFE IF IT WASN’T SO COMPLICATED

By Larry Cassidy | Friday, April 15, 2011

Larry Cassidy currently has forty-two Group 1 successes behind his name. He is a multiple Premiership winning jockey having taken out three titles in Sydney and one in Brisbane. Larry’s View, the personal blog of this top class rider will appear on horseracingonly.com.au every Friday, workload permitting.

There are apparently some punters out there who think that a jockey’s life is pretty simple. Some think that my manager gets me my rides and the trainers’ give me the instructions … and that’s all I need to go about my business.

That description only scratches the surface of what really happens.

The relationship between a manager and a jockey is very important and I have been very fortunate with my experience in that regard.

When I first came to Sydney Ron Dufficy was my manager. He managed Jimmy and it was great to join that team because I could run off Jimmy’s rides which helped getting rides from the late Max Lees and other trainers Jimmy rode for.

I ended up getting on Coronation Day in the George Main Stakes because he had a light weight and because Jimmy used to ride him, so it was a pretty easy choice when I came to Australia to have Ron Dufficy. Ron was my manager up until about ten years ago when his media role overtook things. Ron’s wife Cheryl then took over which I was more than happy with.

Then, coming to Queensland, I spoke to Ron and Cheryl. I offered them the chance to manage me up here, but they suggested that I found someone who knew Brisbane racing.

That showed that they really had my interests at heart. Not only had they been my managers, but they were my friends too.

I asked around. I asked a lot of people about managers and the name that popped up the most was Rob Tweedie. I’ve been more than happy with Rob. I think he has done a great job.

I think some managers are incredibly ruthless. I didn’t want a manager like that. Although it might get you rides long term, you can upset a few people and I don’t want to work like that.

I have had a couple of run-in’s with a person who is that type of manager. I think if you are unscrupulous it will come back and bite you.

So I was lucky when moving to Sydney and then Brisbane. I didn’t have to worry about building trust because the managers I linked up with came with solid recommendations. I have only had managers with good reputations and that helps keep my reputation intact and certainly makes my life easier.

Once you’ve established a comfortable working relationship with a manager there is very little that can get in the way of it.

Punters probably would expect that when a jockey is having a bad run in the saddle he might be tempted to put the blame on his manager. I don’t do that, although some do.

When I was in Sydney and my rides started to dry up, people suggested that it was my manager’s fault. It wasn’t. A manager can’t get you on a horse if the connections don’t want you to ride it, so it all comes back to the jockey.

It is a fickle business. You have your good runs. You have your bad runs. If you are primarily riding for a stable and that stable is having a bad run … well, then you are having a bad run.

The way I look at it, it is a merry-go-around. You’ve just got to hang on tight and wait for your turn to come around again … and, of course, keep working hard.

So there is a lot involved in picking up good rides. Even in good times the jockey and his manager have to work hard together as a team to ensure continued success.

My manager and I liaise three to five times a day. Even when I am not riding I will ring him up and ask how things are going from his side.

I might have ridden something in track-work and the trainer has said, look, I’ve got this in two week’s time … you might want to trial it … and I’ll just say to my manager, the trainer asked me to ride this. I’ll work it. We see how it goes.

We talk between us about what rides we are going to take. I wouldn’t say it’s manager choice. It’s both of us working together as I’m pretty much hands-on.

Come nomination time, I might have two or three offers in one race. We try to be loyal. I think there is not a lot of loyalty in racing but we do try to be loyal.

You do tend to stand on a few toes because of that because when you have got more than one offer you are going to be turning down somebody. It is a fine mix because you are looking to stay loyal but, at the same time, you are looking to ride the best horse in the race that you think can win.

Your choice might not be the right choice. You might have three choices and you pick the horse that finishes further back. It happens.

If I have got a choice of two horses in one race and there is nothing between them I will usually ride for the owner that I’ve had the most success with or the trainer who has supported me the most. In this case you are better off riding the horse for the people who have looked after you.

My manager also obviously knows the fine details about my preferred riding weight and schedule.

For example, he knows at the moment that I don’t want to ride 53kg mid-week but he watches out for my interests. If the weights come out and there is a really good ride at 53 he will ring and say this horse could win and it is going to go on and win on a Saturday … then I’ll make an effort.

Other than that he knows not to take a ride at 53, so we work hand in hand like that.

And it works the other way as well. I’m not riding at Ipswich today. We got two or three offers, but I’ve got a great book of rides on Saturday and he said, look, how about we just ride Wednesday and Saturday. You go into Saturday feeling great … so that’s what we did.

So that’s the way things work with my manager and you can see there is much more to my manager ‘getting me my rides’ than most racing enthusiasts might have thought.

It’s a team effort and it’s working well.

As far as the ‘trainers give me instructions’ aspect, of course that takes place but, again, to leave it at that is over-simplifying a critical part of a winning formula.

Strategy is all-important and any good rider will involve himself as heavily on race tactics as the trainer.

My manager does my speed form. I have a friend of mine who does my speed form too, so I have two lots to look at. The two of them and myself are like a brains-trust looking into the race.

I find speed form is very important because the position you can get into on a particular horse will depend on the speed of the race.

For example, a horse that usually gets back to midfield … if you draw well and it looks to be a slowly run race, you know you are going to be a length or so closer. Knowing your speed form is a massive help.

I use speed form again just before I go out into a race … just to give myself a refresher, so that when I come out I know what I am talking about to the owners and trainer.

I will usually come out and say to them, look we’ve drawn well. If it is a horse I know that usually races in fifth or sixth position and it looks like there is a heap of speed I might say, look we might be seventh or eighth today if they are absolutely flying. If they don’t go as quick as we think we might be third or fourth.

We talk through the options as we see them and they go, yeah, we agree with that. That’s where we are happy to be too … or they add their input.

If I haven’t been on a horse before the trainer’s advice is obviously invaluable.

A trainer might say things like, watch him going to the barriers … it might whip around when it gets to the gates. They might tell you that the horse has only got a short sprint so you have got to sit quiet on him and only get him into the race late, or, he is a horse you can make a long run on. Maybe they will even tell you the horse is a little lazy so you might have to get into him a lot harder or they might tell you that this horse doesn’t like the stick that much.

If I haven’t ridden a horse before and I came out with a plan and then received new information I just refine the plan according and obviously you get a bit of a feel for the horse too before the race so you can usually work things out going to the gates.

You usually have two plans going into the race basically based on if they go quick or if they go slow. Those plans can easily quickly be blown out of the water though once the gates open.

If a horse blows the start … everyone thinks jockeys miss the start … jockeys don’t miss the start. We know when the gates are going to open. It’s horses that miss the start for numerous reasons.

If that happens you have got to work it out from there because, once the gates open, everything that you have done pre-race can go out the window and that’s where a jockey’s experience kicks in.

Irrespective of the circumstances, some horses have to be ridden a certain way and those are the times trainers insist that particular instructions be followed.

You might get one out of every thirty or forty horses you ride that have to be ridden a certain way regardless of what you draw or the speed of the race.

The horse might have to be in front. If it gets behind horses it just gives up. You might be in a fast race and the trainer will say you have to lead at all costs otherwise the horse just doesn’t go.

Alternatively the trainer might say the horse has to be ridden real cold. You say, look, there is no speed in the race. They just say, bad luck. You have to ride the horse the way he has to be ridden. But they are only one in thirty or forty rides.

Sometimes things work out just the way you planned.

I have a great example of that. It’s when I won the Singapore Derby on a horse called Smart Bet.

He was favourite for the Derby and I did a pre-race interview. They said can you run us through the race and tell us what your plan is and I gave them a furlong by furlong account of how I would ride the race.

I even said I’m going to be last coming past the winning post for the first time. I said, but punters … don’t panic. I said this horse has to be ridden quiet and cold. I said as we get to the 600 I’m going to be following a horse of Laurie Laxton’s, because I knew it was going to be back second last with me.

I said it is going to start going forward and I’m going to come off the fence and I’m going to follow it into the race. As I get to the 300m mark I’m going to come outside it and then I’m going to push the button and the race will be over.

Believe it or not, that is exactly how it panned out, blow for blow. It was if I had seen the race first and then gone out to ride it.

It came off on that occasion. That’s one that really sticks out in my mind, but that is essentially what any rider worth his salt is trying to do every-time he goes out into action in spite of the heap of complications that are thrown at him every time a race unfolds.

Sadly, punters do not always give riders the benefit of the doubt when a plan comes unstuck.

My ride on Captain Clayton last Saturday is a case in point.

Trainer Robert Heathcote said to be me I don’t care what else you do, but you have got to get the horse to relax.

When we jumped and had gone fifty yards I was actually getting squeezed between them. He started to get his head in the air and, knowing the horse, if I didn’t act upon that there and then he would have charged up behind the leader. Sure he would have been closer but he probably would have run fourth, not second, because he would have been severely over-racing.

I sort of had to jag him and then he dropped the bit and then there was no speed in the race when we thought there would be. When the race was run slow anyone who backed the horse would have been saying what the hell were you doing back there, but what I did was best for the horse at the time and he ran on with confidence.

If I was going to beat the leader … if there was a chink in his armour … I was going to get it the last bit. I couldn’t win the race at the 200m mark. I had to win the race inside the 50m if I was going to do so at all.

My aim was to pick my horse up, get him balanced, get him running at his top and then chuck everything at him the last little bit.

The way we rode him that day will hopefully teach him to relax better in future races. The trainer was very happy with the run and I thought I rode the horse very well.

I did get a little bit heated when questioned in the stewards’ room afterwards which I regret. I hate having my integrity questioned, but I recognize the stewards are there to do a job and ask some questions and I accept that.

I started off this blog by saying there are apparently some punters out there who think that a jockey’s life is pretty simple. Some think that my manager gets me my rides and the trainers give me the instructions … and that’s all I need to go about my business.

Hopefully they now have a better understanding of my ‘simple’ life.

Cheers,
Larry

To read more on the Captain Clayton run, go to Rob’s Shout - The Knockers have to accept that uncertainty is part and parcel of the game. (See separate story).

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