LARRY'S VIEW - JOCKEYS ARE COMFORTABLE WITH THEIR FACILITIES AT EAGLE FARM AND DOOMBEN

By Larry Cassidy | Friday, April 6, 2012

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.

The Brisbane Racing Club has to be commended for their initiative in upgrading facilities at both the Doomben and Eagle Farm racetracks. While it is still a work in progress with regard to the bigger picture, the completed aspects of the project have been well designed and well implemented.

Both the jockeys’ rooms here in Brisbane are absolutely brilliant.

Not many racetracks now in Australia have somewhere where you can lose weight because of the lawsuit Peter Cook brought after he had suffered a heart attack while he was taking a sauna at a race-meeting in Canberra in 1990.

Cook was in was the sauna trying to lose weight so he could make the weight for a race, when his heart attack occurred. Reportedly, he sued the club because there was no warning posted that losing weight in a sauna increased the likelihood of a heart attack.

Cook also reportedly claimed the Club knew the practice was common yet encouraged it despite the known risks to jockeys of heart attacks.

In 2001, the judge sided with Cook and awarded him $1.3 million in damages.

As you can imagine, that verdict pretty much shut all the saunas down at racetracks at the time.

In Melbourne I think a couple of Metropolitan tracks still have saunas. You have to do a sort of information programme, like an exam, before you allowed in it and you are only allowed in it for ten minutes at a time with either a half-an-hour or an hour break in-between visits.

I think Rosehill and Canterbury still have spas. I think Canterbury is the only one that is hot enough to sweat in.

Here at Eagle Farm, we are now lucky enough to have a nice big spa that you can sweat in. It’s a good temperature and you can make use of it in-between races.

I actually think it is more dangerous for a jockey to get all your weight off before you go to the races and then ride on a hot day. For example, if you have a light ride later in the day and heavier ones early in the day … it would be better to get part of your weight off before you arrive at the races and then have a ride or two and then lose the rest of the weight at the track … it’s definitely a safer and a better option and having a spa available opens that option up to you.

In the jockey’s room we also obviously need a place where we can sit down and have something to eat or drink … either when we are finished or in-between races … plus also to be able to view the races from around the country.

There are a number of flat-screen television sets on the wall around the jockey’s room so, from pretty much anywhere, you can view replays of the race and races that are on around the country.

Actually in the feed-room they have a constant replay going all the time of the previous races which is always handy because it gives you the opportunity to watch a race four or five times to see if you could have done anything different.

The size of the space allocated to each individual jockey differs from Eagle Farm to Doomben and perhaps that’s the only part that isn’t ideal.

The compartments at Eagle Farm are probably slightly too small for my liking. Each compartment is enough for one jockey. At Doomben they are probably too big again because they are set up for two jockeys, but when two jockeys are in there it is too cramped.

I usually use one on my own if I can. If you are sharing one and have seven or eight rides it would make things very awkward, because as the days goes on you rush and things tend to get spread out a bit. You don’t have a lot of time to pick up and tidy after yourself.

There is a lounge room where you can go and sit and relax and there are also a couple of bunks in the jockey’s room. So if you race one and then not in action again until race six you can have a sleep, which is nice.

Jockeys also need somewhere where we can clean our gear through the day. You can rinse gear and then chuck it in the dryer for a later race. There’s a washing machine there too … so packing, as in foam, that you need to wash and then use later on. You can put it in the washing machine, put it on spin and then chuck it in the dryer. Those things are very handy.

There is no smoker’s area at Doomben. They did put in a smoker’s area at Eagle Farm … which I don’t agree with. I just think it is a bad look. I think it is a really terrible look. But that’s just my opinion.

Last but not least, a competent jockey’s room attendant is an absolute ‘must’ for the free flow of the meeting.

Doug does a great job here. He knows all of the trainers … all the jockeys. He knows where we all sit. He knows what is going on. He knows where everything is.

Quite simply, the race-day wouldn’t run smoothly without him. Every track there are people like that … whether you go to Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney.

So, on the whole, we’ve got two good jockey’s rooms and I hope you have enjoyed this quick walk-through behind the scenes.

All in all, I think we are pretty lucky here.

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