BROWNIE'S BLOG - SHORTER TIMES BETWEEN RACES OR LONGER RACE MEETINGS ... A JOCKEY'S PERSPECTIVE

By Damian Browne | Friday, February 12, 2016

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

The thirty minute gap between races, which is currently being trialled by Racing Victoria, has set off a fair bit of argument. I can only talk about it from a jockey’s point of view.

I see Peter V’landys rejected the concept for NSW racing saying, amongst other things, that, "The advice I've got from stewards is you are compromising safety. When a jockey rides in a race you have to remember the exertion it takes - especially in a staying race - and they've got to back up 20 minutes later. It's giving them no time to recuperate."

That is a fair comment in some regards. If you have been wasting hard and it’s a hot day it is probably handy to have those few extra minutes to cool down and catch your breath.

On Saturdays particularly it would be a difficult timeframe anyway. Jockeys tend to have a lot more media commitments and for those involved in any post-race presentations it makes effective time management very hard in that regard.

The more low key meetings are different. I have never really had a problem with the thirty minute gap at the Sunshine Coast on Friday nights, but that comes with less ‘outside’ commitments and cooler temperatures which helps make everything manageable.

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But there are still things we have to do between races.

As far as familiarising myself with the race form is concerned, I generally do a lot at the races or leading up to the races. Every race is obviously different so you have got to continually refresh as you move through the race-day.

Which colours you are looking for? Which jockeys do you want to be following?

If you do that too long beforehand and don’t do anything on the day, you might get it wrong. You might think you have got to follow Jimmy Byrne and then all of a sudden you realise you’ve got the wrong race and he is on a 100-1 shot going nowhere.

So, you do need that time to refresh your thinking prior to each race.

That’s just part of a general routine with us which includes having your saddle ready for all the races and not just the next one. It’s all about organising yourself at the start of the day and hoping things go smoothly.

I guess like anywhere in life though, some jockeys are more organised and move quicker than others.

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The other thing is ... I think consideration should be given to the apprentices regarding the time factor between races.

With experience everything seems to move a little bit slower and you seem to have more time, but for an apprentice who is just starting out or who hasn’t been riding long, a race or a race-day can go pretty quickly, sometimes without giving them a real opportunity to learn from the experience.

They need a little bit of time to soak things in ... whether they are being given advice from the jockey’s advocate or another jockey. They need that bit of pause to take things in.

The bottom line is that any sort of tight time scheduling is always at risk. It only takes one horse to get away or drop its rider or need farrier attention when it gets to the barrier ... and that can throw the whole routine out of order very quickly.

In fact, quite regularly ... it probably happens every race-day ... a girth or something like that gets sent back from saddling up because it is too big or too small for a particular horse, because obviously the same jockey doesn’t ride the horse every time, so there are many things that can cause a time delay.

So, while a shorter race meeting does have benefits it really is very much a two sided coin.

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On the other end of the scale, apparently there is a proposal to hold a small number of day / night meetings with a twelve race card locally next season.

Personally I think a twelve race card can affect a rider’s concentration and staying power and, even from the public’s point of view, that is a very long day.

We used to have ten races at every meeting when I was in New Zealand and by the last two or three races you were well aware that it was becoming a long day.

Not only for jockeys but especially for the trainers and their staff who get up in the early hours of the morning. It was probably very difficult for them.

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If we do get those twelve race meetings here, it is very easy to say owners or trainers who are inconvenienced by the late nights don’t have to enter their horses for the later races if they don’t want to go there, but things are not as simple as that.

The way race programming works here, if a trainer elects to miss that meeting or that race, there might not be another suitable race for that particular horse for some time.

If that is the case and if a trainer doesn’t go, that could lead to a disagreement between a trainer and an owner and then it is more likely than not that the owner will take his horse away and give it to somebody who will go.

It can leave everybody in a difficult position.

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My view is that the public of today want quick, fast excitement and racing should be looking at given the punter and public what they want while, at the same time, being respectful to to the participants, some of whom have to travel long distances to help put on the show.

I mean people talk about health and safety but the last thing you want is for somebody who gets up and starts work at three o-clock in the morning having an accident on their two hour drive home after competing in the last race at something after nine o’clock at night ... because they are tired.

I know the onus is on each individual to act responsibly, but it is a worry.

So, it is never just a question of thirty minutes between races or whether to have a twelve race card or not.

There is a lot more to it than that!

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