FROM THE SHERIFF'S DESK - ACKNOWLEDGING THE CHALLENGES THAT JOCKEYS FACE EVERY DAY

By John Schreck | Wednesday, May 10, 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.

The retirement of Dylan Dunn from race riding at the tender age of twenty two has once again brought into focus the constant battle that jockeys have on the weight front.

I can certainly sympathise with Dunn because a jockey’s life is a very difficult one.

Firstly, not everybody can be a jockey. There are a lot of people who want to be jockeys but who are unable to do so because of the weight factor. There are others who become jockeys but who then knock themselves about terribly to maintain their life as a jockey.

Take Zac Purton for example. He spends most of his life in a hot bath and having to watch what he eats. He does that and is successful, but many others do it and are not successful, adding stress to what is already a difficult battle.

There are those few who are naturally light, but they are in the minority.

Society is growing. People are getting bigger ... which is another reason why females are getting such a run on as jockeys because they are, generally speaking, of a smaller stature and can ride the weight that is required.

The weight scale has gone up over the years but I can’t see them going up very much more.

I think it is going to be a never-ending battle with more and more female riders entering the sport with probably more people from Asian countries also making a success of it.

The pool in Asia would be huge. One of the reasons they have not become a big factor is that, in recent years, they haven’t grown up around horses as westerners have.

In the past, of course, the Chinese were better with horses than anywhere else on earth but that has not been the case for some time now.

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One of the better things in the way the world has evolved is the advances made in sports science / medicine.

Now, in theory at least, jockeys have a healthier option of meeting their weight requirements than there was in the past.

We are a long way removed from the time when jockeys used to swallow a tape-worm, let that eat up inside them and when it got too bad have it removed ... and then on the way home swallow another one.

During my years the great thing was used by jockeys was Lasix. One of the AJC doctors at the time was very keen to do some work on the subject and ban the use of Lasix and that led to another mistake I made ... among quite a few mistakes ... because I was opposed to what the doctor wanted to do.

At that time I thought the jockeys had an obligation to look after themselves and if they wanted to lessen their weight through a diuretic, well that was their business. That was clearly a wrong attitude and, of course now, if a jockey gets caught with Lasix in their system they are in trouble.

Dehydration can take effect on many levels the most extreme of which can be very dangerous which is one of the reasons behind the use of Lasix being prohibited, because it can dry a person right out.

There are many methods used for weight loss. Some are healthy enough and some are pretty crude such as swallowing a whole bottle of coke and then putting your finger down your throat. A lot of jockeys also smoke a huge amount to curb their appetite and so on ... so, behind the scenes, it is not the attractive lifestyle some believe it to be.

Put on top of that the relative short lifespan they have as a jockey and the danger they go through every day and you will have a better understanding of the life they live.

Not everybody acknowledges the difficulties jockeys face. Sometimes, for the privilege of going through all of their hardship, they come to the racecourse and get heckled ... which is not fair really, but it is a fact of racing life which has gone on forever so it does come with the territory.

The jockeys really do a good job to put up with it all.

I just admire them so much for what they do.

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I spent some time in Hong Kong recently.

The leading trainer there is John Size, an Australian, who will no doubt be champion trainer there again this season. Out of the top ten jockeys five are Australian, so Australians are doing well over there and the sport is continuing to do well there.

You can understand why the Hong Kong Jockey Club is so successful when you recognise how they go about things.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club are currently spending a lot of money on a very exciting training complex in China ... and it is worth noting the big difference in the way they have gone about it as opposed to the way Australians and others have looked at Chinese venture in the past.

Australians would go up there and look at China and say ... we going to get racing going in China and we can sell horses to them, we can sell feed etc. That is all about what Australia can get out of it ... not what China can get out of it.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club have done exactly the opposite of that.

They’ve established a facility. They have helped with the Olympic Games and the Asia Games ... they are doing things for China, just as they do for their own community in Hong Kong where they spend billions of dollars each year for the community’s benefit.

The Hong Kong model is unique and, if racing ever does get going in China, there is no way it will be established in any other concept than a copy of Hong Kong.

Australian’s and all these other people who think they are going to go up there and start racing in China are just deluding themselves, not least because they start off with the wrong focus.

It would pay to remember that China is run by some very smart people!