LARRY'S VIEW - IF YOU THINK IT IS TOUGH AT THE TOP, TRY BEING LOWER DOWN THE LADDER

By Larry Cassidy | Friday, August 3, 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.

In racing, when you get to the end of July you simply flip a calendar page and one season flows, apparently seamlessly, into another. But life is not quite that simple.

Before all of the scoreboards click back to naught before the first race on the first day of the new season, there is a brief moment in which you can reflect on the last twelve months of your career and put your performance in some perspective.

There is no point in doing so however, if you are not going to be brutally honest with yourself and the stark truth of my last season was that, in my twenty-seven year riding career, that’s the least winners I’ve ever ridden and it is worst season I’ve ever had, including money-wise.

I did ride about sixty-four or sixty-five winners, which is pushing me towards the 2400 mark, but it was just one of those seasons where things sort of first went pear-shaped … and then they went double pear-shaped.

Obviously I went through that riding inquiry with Trump. Even though I was found ‘not guilty’ by two panels, I think some bad perception stuck. You know, even though the stewards said there was no wrong-doing in the betting ring and that … they accused me of making a mistake and they were ultimately found to be wrong … they did accuse me on quite a high level and the public perception played a massive part in it.

I received a couple of crank phone calls and obviously there were trainers and owners, who probably didn’t see the race, who were listening to, maybe, Chinese whispers … and all of a sudden that affected what rides I got, particularly the fifty-fifty calls. My quality of rides certainly dried up.

Then, just to add salt into the wound, I had that fall, which was actually the day after my appeal at QCAT … even though we didn’t find out the result from QCAT until just after I started riding again.

The fall was pretty terrible. I was out of action just a tick over two months and that was the longest period of time I’ve ever been off in the whole of my career.

Coming back was difficult. I think I rode a double the second meeting back. It was a bit of a kick-start, but then I still think the negative perception was there from my inquiry.

I got less and less rides. You find yourself in a real no-win situation because results are the only thing that people really pay attention to so, if you are not getting an opportunity on horses that can win, you just slip further off the radar.

It got to that critical a stage that I said to my manager, look, I don’t really like riding on Sundays … I like to have a family day … but I knuckled down to riding on Sundays where I was lucky enough to team up with Len Treloar, who started to give me a lot of rides. We’ve had great success at the Sunshine Coast on a Sunday.

At one stage I was finding I was riding three or four winners during the week, but none in town. My rides in town, even though I was getting four or five rides, were long-shots. I had a very lean carnival. I won on Pepperwood, but otherwise it was really lean.

It does get you down. I know mentally it got me down. I stopped riding work, because even the people I rode work for weren’t giving me rides anyway. I thought, well, what’s the point? Obviously, I wasn’t being given many opportunities, but I tried to work harder by coming to more meetings.

It improved to a stage where the results were coming at the provincials, but then obviously my work load was greater and that was taking its toll on my body.

Look, at the end of the day there are a lot of jockeys in the same boat as me. There are a lot of good riders that don’t get a chance.

Do I ever think of giving it away?

Yeah, the last time was the other morning when I got out of the sauna. I was laying on the floor. I was overheating. I still had three-quarters of a kilo to get off and I felt if someone had come in and shot me through the head, I would have been happier. That’s the way I felt because of the struggle with my weight.

That’s how bad I felt laying on the floor … I was lying there with at towel over me and wrapped in plastic trying to keep sweating. At times like that you think like that.

Later that day at the races, I was fined for not being able to ride 54 kg - so it doesn't just affect your mind, it can affect your hip pocket!

Light jockeys just don’t know how lucky they are. I’ve been watching my weight for twenty years. It’s an everyday process. I revolve … and my family’s life revolves about when I am riding, what weight I have to ride at.

They might want to go out for dinner on a Saturday night. I say, you go without me. I’m better off staying at home with having rice and vegetables. That’s part and parcel of the job.

Like I said at the outset, there is no point in assessing anything if you are not going to be brutally honest, so if you want any season highlights, there aren't many.

I’m in one piece … for that I’m grateful. Winning the last race of the Metropolitan season at Doomben on Saturday, in its own small way, has helped me move into the new season with a positive mindset and I was very happy to ride the winner on Sunday that gave Len Treloar his first Premiership title at the Sunshine Coast.

I took a short break recently and I’ve just started back again. I’m back riding work. With the new season I want to show I can get my name back up there. I don’t kid myself about how difficult that might be for me to achieve.

Having taken you behind the scenes with all that I’ve mentioned above, you too might now have a better understanding of just what I’m up against.

Till next week,
Larry

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