BROWNIE'S BLOG - THE UPS AND DOWNS OF CARNIVAL RACING: BUFFERING'S SETBACK: MY VIEW ON WHIP USE

By Damian Browne | Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Damian Browne is rated right up there with the best jockeys in Australia. After severe injury setbacks which would have ended a lesser man’s career, this eleven-time Group 1 winning jockey has fought back against the odds to establish a solid reputation both as a person ... through the calm, confident and professional manner in which he goes about his business ... and as a rider, where he has built an enviable race record largely courtesy of his exceptional expertise as a horseman. Damian’s column, ‘Brownies Blog’, will appear weekly on Wednesdays ... exclusive to HRO!

It was disappointing not to be on Pride Of Dubai in the Championships.

Hughie Bowman has done a lot of work on the horse from day one. He has done all his trials. He rode him his first start. He wasn’t able to be in Melbourne for the Blue Diamond Prelude.

Peter Snowden actually had quite a few runners in Sydney that day and wanted Hughie in Sydney for that meeting and the stable wanted someone On Pride Of Dubai who could ride him in both the Prelude and the Blue Diamond and I was able to do that, so that’s how I got on the horse in the first place.

I obviously went on and got the job done. It was great. I thought I was a fifty-fifty call. I thought I had a chance of staying on the horse until probably about ten days ago but it just shows hard work behind the scenes, as Hughie has done, can work in your favour.

Peter has always been pretty forthright with me. With last year with Earthquake I always knew I wasn’t going to be on her for sure. Kerrin McEvoy was always going to be on her where this time I thought I was still a chance but, as I say, it was a fifty-fifty chance which didn’t go my way.

Peter has said to me if anything happens to Hughie... if he is suspended or something like that which I wouldn’t like to see ... I’m back on the Pride Of Dubai.

I’m first in line so, although disappointing, that’s racing and I’ve just got to move on.

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Buffering’s injury was most unfortunate.

I was due to come down and trial him on the Thursday. He was only galloping on the B grass on the Tuesday morning when the injury occurred.

It’s been well documented what Robert Heathcote has had to say about being denied permission to gallop on the course proper.

It would be fair to say that Buffering is the flagship horse for Queensland and he probably did deserve to be on the course proper so, in that respect, it was a disappointing decision.

Unrelated to that injury, I have been asked if horses like Buffering, who really give their all in every race, are more at risk of hurting themselves because they are so competitive.

Generally horses have a tendency to look after themselves. Some horses have a lot of ability but will still look after themselves. They might have had a prior injury earlier which is in the back of their minds.

Certain horses though, the tough ones, will push themselves and run through the pain barrier at times so, yes, they probably are more at risk to injury than your average runner.

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Obviously Buffering is a big loss for the carnival.

I was looking forward to riding him. He had a good rest coming in and had been set specifically for our carnival. We were aiming for that home victory which would have been the icing on the cake in his career.

I’ve still got some other good rides lined up for the carnival. Srikandi I’ve got lined up for the Victory Stakes. She was favourite in the Stradbroke last year. So she’s one going forward.

Also the Filly Of The Year from New Zealand, Platinum Witness, who is trained by Lisa Latta, is looking to come over for the Queensland Oaks. I‘ve had feature race success with Lisa before.

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I received interesting question from an HRO reader.

‘Do you scream at horses in the finish? Do you think screaming is an effective or different form of energy transfer between horse and jockey?’

Sometimes!

Horses, like people ... some of them you have to growl at and some of them put their ears back and have a go on their own. It’s the same with the whip. Some of them you need to give a smack on the bum and some you don’t.

It is just the feel you get at the time. If you feel that the horse is losing focus in what it is doing sometimes I growl at it.

If you scream at your horse does it rally the horse next to you as much as your own mount?

Probably. On that basis I guess If you can get beside some of the jockeys who are doing it all the time it saves you doing it yourself!

That would be useful on certain days when you would be better off with your mouth closed otherwise you might get a load of dirt in it.

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Seriously though, there is screaming. There is the whip and there are spurs which all can be used as individual jockey’s discretion.

Certainly the whips we use now doesn’t hurt the horses. The whips are now highly padded. They have always been called the persuader and I think they should be used in that fashion ... to persuade the horse.

You can’t flog a horse to the line. The horse can only do so much and, more often than not, you hit them too much and they will curl up and stop.

Sometimes you get more out of your horse when you put the whip away.

The whip is there to encourage, persuade and to help with control. If you have a horse that is hanging or wayward it can help straighten them up. But it has got to be used in a reasonable fashion otherwise it will simply be counter-productive.

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As far as the number of legal whip strikes is concerned, when the rule first came in we jockeys were of the opinion that we should be allowed to protest if that rule was broken.

However we more or less ... I won’t say we were told ... but we were under the impression that because somebody hit their horse more than you, that was not going to win you the race in a protest hearing.

My personal opinion is if you are going to break the rules to beat me you should be put out ... and that probably would make jockeys stay within the limits if they knew that would be the case.

Then it is in black and white. At the moment it is a grey area and you are not going to keep everybody happy when there is a grey area so it would probably be better to put it in black and white.

If you break the rule you get disqualified.

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I’ve never been one to wear spurs. I don’t really kick. I’ve got my own way of trying to encourage the horse.

Actually, for me personally, I can’t kick anyway. I’m more of a point of balance type person. I try and stay still in the saddle.

I think you’ll see that the ones who do wear spurs ... and some riders wear them regularly ... are vigorous riders who sit down and ride vigorously. It really doesn’t do anything for me so there is no point in putting them on.

Until next week.

Damian

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