LARRY'S VIEW - COMPETITIVE RIDING AND PROTESTS ARE PART OF THE VERY FABRIC OF THE SPORT

By Larry Cassidy | Friday, May 25, 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.

There was plenty of action in the stewards’ room at the Doomben Cup meeting with a number of suspensions being handed out to riders. The most high profile incident came in the Cup itself where Nash Rawiller picked up ten meetings after being found guilty on a charge of careless riding when he ‘he failed to make sufficient effort to prevent his mount (the winner Mawingo) from shifting in resulting in Manighar being tightened for room.’

Nash ultimately had that suspension set aside on appeal but that issue reinforced the fact that, in racing, sometimes there will be incidents with perceived harsh outcomes. That is an on-going scenario and part of the very fabric of the sport.

The point that needs to be recognized though, is that in this day and age no rider purposely goes out to try and gain any unfair advantage. It is however equally a fact of life that as soon as the prize-money gets up and the better horses are here, everything becomes more competitive.

Riding is a bit tighter. Everyone is trying to get into a spot so that generally injects more speed into the race and, I suppose every move becomes more magnified. The bottom line is riders want to stay within the rules but, within those parameters, nobody is going to give an inch, so basically everyone is riding a bit tighter.

I’m not saying that riders give other jockeys more room in a Class 1 at Ipswich. I’m just saying that a combination of top jockeys riding quality horses for big prize-money does change the dynamics of what happens out there. It is competitiveness at the highest level.

So, there will be racing incidents. Some will lead to protests … and that is another interesting part of the process that can come into play on any race-day. Every punter will have his view on any incident, but with a protest, it is obviously what happens in the stewards’ room that has the most important consequence in terms of deciding the result.

So who should be giving evidence in a protest hearing and what value do you set on where that evidence is coming from?

In my opinion, in a protest the film shows everything anyway. If it is black and white, blatant interference it doesn’t matter what anyone says, the stewards are going to uphold it … or, if clear-cut circumstances sway it the other way … dismiss it. Then it doesn’t really matter.

If it is a fifty-fifty call though, it can come down to a degree as to how well you put your evidence forward. If you can convince the panel by the force of your argument or perhaps by bringing some aspect into play that might not have been outwardly apparent, chances are the decision will go in your favour.

When it is difficult to interpret from the film, I guess most people will exaggerate their side of the argument. It’s human nature. If there was definite contact you might say there was solid contact. If you were on the other side of the story you might have seen it as being merely a ‘brush’ between runners. That is just the way it is and the adjudicators would have to take that ‘bias’ into account to a degree when reaching a final decision.

So a fifty-fifty call can become difficult to make … and often the ‘benefit of doubt’ factor might come into play.

Jockeys have the closest view of the action so certainly there voice should be heard in the hearing. Experience does come into play, of course, when you have to give evidence. It would be interesting if someone was ever to research the records of various jockeys in terms of the protest results they have been involved in. I’m pretty certain the trend would show that the more experienced the rider was, the more he achieved a winning outcome. I know my win / loss result ratio would be pretty strong.

Trainers, likewise, are absolutely are entitled to have a say in a protest hearing for both themselves and in terms of being the representative of the owners.

Owners having a say themselves … well they are entitled to, but most are happy to go along with what their jockey and trainer has to say and leave it at that.

So, while the Doomben Cup provided a pretty high profile protest early in the Carnival, chances are there will probably be more come.

Nothing sinister in that. It is just an occasional side effect from a clash of top riders riding top horses for big prize-money.

As I said earlier it is competitiveness at the highest level. Punters wouldn’t expect anything less. They wouldn’t want it any other way!

Till next week,
Larry

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