BROWNIE'S BLOG - THE EXTREME HEAT OF SUMMER! HOW IT AFFECTS THE DAY IN THE LIFE OF A JOCKEY

By Damian Browne | Monday, December 14, 2015

Damian Browne, reigning Queensland's Jockey Of The Year, is rated right up there with the best jockeys in Australia and, as such, his highly informed views make essential reading for anyone in the racing industry. Damian’s column, ‘Brownies Blog’ appears exclusively on HRO

I received an interesting question from a reader wanting to know how the extreme heat of summer affects the daily life of a jockey.

To answer that ... the very hots days are something of a mixed blessing in that it obviously makes it easier for jockeys to control their weight in theory but it also carries the threat of dehydration.

So it can be very difficult on those hot days to find the right balance between wasting to make your riding weight and making sure that, in doing that, you don’t weaken too much as the meeting goes on ... given your exposure to the heat.

We can all dehydrate and we’ve all seen what can happen to dehydrated people. It is no exaggeration to say that they can lose consciousness and it can get very serious, so the heat certainly does have an effect.

So we have to try and keep hydrated. We keep our liquid intake up as much as we can. That’s why you see jockeys having a swig of a bottle of water behind the gates to try to stay hydrated.

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I probably find it hardest when you come in and try to converse with owners after a race.

You feel very dry in the mouth and your tongue gets stuck to the top of your mouth making it difficult to talk. Your heart rate is up and you are just sweating profusely ... especially with your vest on, so that probably describes the most uncomfortable moments.

You can obviously get some relief in between races.
I’ve got an ice-vest that I put on to try and get my core body temperature down again.

Even then though, you are getting things ready for the next race, giving media interviews and so on ... meaning you are really just continuing to sweat to some degree over a long period of time.

I suppose it’s similar to when you see with a cricketer cramping up because he has been batting for a long time.

That ‘cramping up’ is one of the outcomes we have to guard against throughout the day by trying to take in enough fluids if we can.

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Away from race-day my weekly routine doesn’t vary too much. I pretty much have a set routine irrespective of the weather.

I run with a wet-suit. I sit in a hot bath. Fortunately I’ve got a pool so I can jump in and get my body temperature back down again or sit in front of cold fans ... but, again, that’s where you can get the flu quite easily or pick up a bug.

Perhaps people will now understand why some jockeys sometimes look terrible at the track ... why others are sometimes stood down during a meeting.

Jockeys really have to perform an all-around, on-going balancing act in terms of their conditioning. ... all of the time!

It is no cakewalk even at the best of times.

When extreme heat arrives, a difficult situation just gets more intense.

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In response to another question, a reader has expressed concern about the dominance of certain trainers in certain centres at this time and he suggests that surely can’t be a good thing for horse racing moving forward.

Chris Waller’s success in Sydney is the prime example of this but, in truth, it’s probably been happening in Sydney for a number of years before Waller took the scene by storm.

Gai Waterhouse was doing it. The Inghams with John Hawkes are another example of a partnership that set the bar pretty high.

Sydney’s been having that ‘problem’ for years, regularly only getting fields of six or seven runners.

So, while Waller might have taken the individual’s dominance factor to a new level, it really comes down to the fact that you have to give him full credit to him for what he has achieved.

It is a feather in his cap, as it is for Tony Gollan who has established himself so well here in Brisbane.

Again, Rob Heathcote dominated for a number of years before Tony ... and before that you can go back to the days of Bruce McLachlan and people like that years ago.

In Victoria it was Moody and now it is Darren Weir. It was Lee Freedman before them.

Anybody who makes it to those lofty heights deserves to be there.

It’s not just a question of having a good team or a big team, it is a question of having the ability to be able to get that team to perform to its optimum.

It is going to happen in every precinct.

A jockey or a trainer can dominate over a period of time and, as it has always been throughout the years, that’s when it those competing against them have to find some way to close the gap and then beat them.

Like it or not, it is an aspect of racing that is firmly entrenched in the game.

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In closing, I was fortunate enough to be named joint winner of the Queensland Racing Media Association’s UBET Personality of the year which was announced yesterday.

Rob Heathcote was the joint recipient of the award while Jimmy Orman who took out the Queensland Racing Media Association’s UBET Apprentice of the year award.

They say sharing an award with somebody can be pretty much like kissing your sister but, be that as it may, while nobody does anything in this game with the specific aim of winning an award, it is always gratifying when your hard work is given some recognition.

My thanks to Rob for the part he has played in my career by putting me in the saddle of a champion ... and thanks must obviously also go to Buffering, who has a string of awards of his own.

He is still giving me quite a ride!

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