A WEIGHT OFF THEIR SHOULDERS

By Graham Potter | Thursday, December 10, 2015

The new helmet, originally scheduled to become an enforced part of every jockey’s racing gear from March 2016, has been put back on the shelf following an unprecedented level of rejection of the proposed new helmet by those whose necks would be on the line if they were forced to wear them.

In the first instance, Queensland jockeys Jim Byrne and Ryan Wiggins should take a bow.

It was their joint initiative to start the public group, facebook page, ‘Have your say about the new helmets’ that started the ripple that turned into a stream that turned into a flood.

The racing industry’s response to their initiative, both in terms of informed comment and weight of numbers was extraordinary. It quickly became too big and too loud to be ignored.

Secondly, the positive power of social media has to be acknowledged.

Social media does have its dark side but, when you want to get your message out there as quickly as possible to gather support for a worthy cause, as Byrne and Wiggins set out to do, there is currently no better way to achieve that than on social media and the absolute, outright success of the “Have your say about the new helmets’ campaign is testimony of that.

Thirdly, the fact that ‘people power’ won out this time against bureaucracy translates into a significant victory which will give confidence to those involved moving forward that they no longer have to be cowed into submission by those wielding a heavy handed rule-book.

Not that I’m suggesting every future protest by any group will be worthy or will succeed but, in terms of the new helmet issue, the stars did align beautifully for the jockeys as a smart initiative instantly found its mark with a large support base whose combined efforts managed to weaken the impetus behind the introduction of the new helmets until it stalled.

It says much of the current situation in racing that the jockey’s and their supporters are celebrating this result as a win.

It is quite clearly just that, but it is also unfortunate that racing, already very much under threat from unwanted outside influences, still has so many internal ‘them’ versus ‘us’ issues to overcome.

Hopefully the successful stand taken by jockeys and their supporters will help close that gap a little by bringing a new understanding to racing authorities that when they talk about a consultation process in future, it will mean they will actually need to listen to participant’s opinions on subjects in which the participant’s hands-on experience qualifies them as experts.

On certain topics ... not all ... the landscape has changed with the success of ‘Have your say on the new helmets.
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In that I do find cause for celebration.

Not so much because of the jockeys ‘win’ in a battle I have wholly supported, but because this outcome brings some hope that authorities will have learnt enough from this episode to know to treat racing stakeholders and their opinions with more respect in future and that stakeholders have learnt enough from this episode to know what to do if they don’t!

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