FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - ACKNOWLEDGING JOCKEYS FOR THE UNIQUE SPORTSMEN AND WOMEN THAT THEY ARE

By John Schreck | Thursday, February 23, 2017

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. Schreck’s personal blog, ‘From the Sheriff’s Desk', appears exclusively on HRO.

Jockeys are unique sportsmen and women.

The physical fitness of jockeys who reach the top of their profession has to be at the highest level even if their role is quite distinct from that of a professional fighter or a professional footballer who are being physically bumped and knocked about incessantly.

Jockeys have to constantly manage their physical well-being. The exercise side of that is important.

They have to keep themselves physically fit because they are bent over a high powered animal for much of the time they are at work.

Just try trotting a horse around in a little saddle with your knees up around its wither. For those who have never done it before you would find that you would go a hundred yards and your legs would be gone.

The physical fitness that jockeys have to display is very different from other sports but no less essential. Ideally they do have to be strong in the upper body ... short in the legs and strong in the upper body.

The majority of jockeys also have to manage a restricted diet and that means they have to achieve a fine balancing act with physical exercise and dietary requirements if they are to be able to perform at an optimum level.

They get stood down and fined by the stewards if they are overweight and if they are under weight or weakened and can’t ride the horse out properly in the finish they get sacked by connections.

They work within such fine parameters that sometimes they can find themselves in a no win situation ... and that is without even going into the danger that they face every time they get on a horse.

Remember as well that it can be a relatively short career in a very competitive environment.

If a battling jockey finds himself on a good horse he knows full well that the phone of the owner or trainer is going to be ringing non-stop with people trying to get under his neck ... so it is a very tough and, at times, brutal way to make a living.

Those who are successful of course do make a good living but there are many who will only just be making wages ... and that’s all!

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So it is already a unique way of making a living because these particular external factors ... by that I mean factors away from the race action itself.

That brings me to the amazing skill factor jockeys produce on race days.

You see horses bunched almost clipping heels. You hear jockeys calling for a bit more room. If anything goes wrong a nasty accident is always on the cards. That is the situation jockeys courageously take on in almost every race.

Look, even I and a lot of other people can ride a horse in a big saddle at full pelt. To a generally competent rider that is no trouble at all ... but when you put us in a little saddle with another fifteen horses around us all galloping at speed ... boot to boot ... it is a very different proposition.

I just think that people who can do that ... the jockeys ... have an amazing skill set which is not always appreciated.

Having watched thousands upon thousands of races over the years and having been around racetracks and horses all of my life ... and been there when people have been killed ... I do appreciate the skills, courage and discipline that jockeys show, both in and out of the saddle.

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Jockey’s demeanour, on occasions, can also be related directly to their unique, prescribed set of circumstances.

Lots of heavyweight jockeys will often get to the races without having eaten too much for a couple of days.

You can imagine yourself what that would do to you.

Jockeys carry that sort of difficulty with them all the time and for some of them, when they do really waste hard, their nerves are just on edge and, in my experience, you have to treat them very carefully in inquiries and all that sort of stuff because they can ‘lose it’ very quickly.

They also often carry niggling injuries which certainly doesn’t help matters.

Of course no jockey is perfect in any of the disciplines mentioned above. That is why they are always involved in an on-going battle on many fronts including having to learn to live with regular criticism from those who didn’t get the result they wanted.

Sometimes that criticism is valid. Sometimes it is not. Extremes of good and bad do exist in any walk of life, but there is one fact we should all be able to agree on ... namely that jockeys are unique sportsmen and women who deserve due acknowledgement for the essential service they give to the industry, sometimes at great personal cost.