FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - JOCKEYS SHARING PRECONCEIVED IDEAS PRE-RACE WILL BE PROBLEMATIC

By John Schreck | Wednesday, July 20, 2016

John Schreck, a former Chief Steward in both Sydney and Hong Kong, has seen both the colourful and the dark sides of racing. His wealth of experience and his deep knowledge of racing matters across the board is unquestioned and the reputation he built as a racing ‘lawman’ remains firmly entrenched in racing’s history. Shreck’s personal blog, ‘From the Sheriff’s Desk', appears exclusively on HRO.

The Ride Guide concept, whereby jockeys give pre-race interviews which are only available on the website of the corporate bookmaker Ladbrokes, was launched prematurely last Friday before being put on hold by Racing Victoria stewards.

Irrespective of the integrity concerns ... they are important, but even putting those aside ... to me this is just another way of destroying initiative and setting up controversy.

Riders were apparently going to talk publically pre-race about the way they will ride a horse. If that is the case, will they then be committed to ride that way? What happens if they don’t?

Either result is problematic.

To restrict a rider to a specific strategy when changing circumstances in a race might offer a better option, or for a rider to not comply with publically stated pre-race tactics ... well, neither of those outcomes gives racing a good look.

As I’ve said before, one of the great features of horse racing has always been, and should always be, its unpredictability.

Very much part of that unpredictability is for jockeys to be able to feel free to show individual initiative as the occasion demands without any pressure or fear of what impact their decisions might have on the image of racing because of something that was said publically pre-race.

For that reason, my view of this particular aspect of pre-race interviews is one of shock, horror and I would hope that authorities could do something to curtail it.

That doesn’t mean I’m against jockeys promoting racing in the media.

In fact I believe they have an absolute obligation, like all licensed persons, to promote the sport as well as they can, importantly in the appropriate circumstances, and, generally, I think they do that pretty well.

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Racing Australia’s has announced that, from September 1, the cobalt threshold will be halved from the current 200mcg per litre of urine to a 100mcg per litre of urine.

Without knowing the ins-and-outs of cobalt use my view is that if they can internationalise the standard, all the better.

Standardisation, in all sorts of areas, is beneficial to the sport.

There is no downside to the general concept because then everybody knows exactly where they stand wherever they might be.

People who travel with horses will know that the rule is always the same and does not change from one jurisdiction to the next.

So, I believe the general concept of standardisation to be a wise move.

It is a principle I have always supported and I don’t think you can argue against it.