THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: UNDER THE RADAR AND UNDER ACKNOWLEDGED

By Graham Potter | Friday, September 7, 2018

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily. This particular story is an extended version of the story that appeared in the newspaper which was restricted due to space constraints

You see them … but you don’t really notice them unless something really drastic is going on which is really strange in a way because the horses they ride do stand out.

Such is the under-the-radar role of the clerk of the course.

Under the radar and certainly under acknowledged!

Watching Ryan and Courtney Tyrell, amongst others, at work in that role over many meetings at the Sunshine Coast it suddenly struck me how little I had understood or appreciated what work is put into a clerk of the course’s horse training and the rider expertise that is required to make them a suitable team for the job.

When you don’t know … you ask … and Ryan and Courtney were happy to educate me on the subject.

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“We source potential clerk of the course horses on their character,” explained Ryan. “It might surprise people to learn that they actually need to have a bit of mongrel in them … but they can’t be nasty.

“Some of those horses we lead at the races will lay all over them, bite them and push them around. They have got to be able to take a fair bit, cop it, and not get cranky but they also have to do enough to help keep that horse in line.

“At home we spend a fair bit of time teaching them our leg-aids. When we put our left leg on, they’ve got to move to the right and vice versa … right leg on, move to the left. Our legs are pretty much steering them.

“We also have to teach them a lot of neck-reining because you’ve got to remember we’ve only got one hand that we’re riding with.

"When we are using a neck-rein we are only using one hand to steer both ways … we don’t have the option like most people who ride left rein, left hand … right rein, right hand.

"We only have one hand available because we are leading a horse with the other hand so we hold the reins together and move them across their necks.

“They’ve got to be pretty finely turned in the sense that where-ever you ask them to go they have to respond to it and you’ve got to know they are going to be there for you.

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“Clerk of the course horses have also got to be pretty patient. When you get to the gates, if they don’t have to do anything they have got to just stand there quietly.

That allows us to keep an eye open for things that don’t look right. We might spot a surcingle that is not properly fastened or something like that and tell the starter that needs to be fixed,” explained Ryan.

“It’s not exactly hectic as such before a race,” added Courtney, “but there is a lot happening … sometimes to an international audience … and it all has happen within a particular timeframe. We are putting on a show and where-ever we can contribute to making things go smoothly the better.

"So, like Ryan says, our horses have to have a bit of mongrel in them and they also have to have a lot of patience. That can be a pretty fine line to work with which is where all of the schooling comes in.”

“The other thing that Clerk of the Course horses need to have a fair bit of stamina,” said Courtney.

“Take a 1400m race for example,” explained Ryan. Going to the 1400m start they have probably got to go 800m out and 800m back at a minimum. So, there they have gone a mile … and that’s just one race. Last Saturday there were nine races so they would probably cover around ten kilometres on the day while having to stay on duty for something like six hours.

“A lot of people might think they don’t do much, but you run ten kilometres yourself, never mind how long it takes you or if you have breaks in-between, and see how you feel.

"Compare that to the actual racehorses have only got to trot or canter to the start and then race and then they are finished for the day.

“As riders we do feel it as well. When we get home after a meeting Courtney will have a glass of wine and I'll have a couple of rums but we won't do much else because we are tired. You can guarantee its will be lights out for us by 8.30pm.

"When we get up the next day and go to the stables you can see the toll race-day has taken on our horses. They can be jaded … but again there is a fine line there.

"You’ve got to remember … yes, they’ve got to have stamina but if we get them too fit, they get fresh and they take too long to wind down.

“They want to get out of there and get it all over in the first race and they’ve got eight to go. It is really is a fine line between having them a bit soft and fat and yet fit enough to see out the day and get the job done.

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“We’re pretty lucky with the three horses we’ve got … well, we might be down to two soon because I’m probably going to retire the old boy ‘Bluey’ whose being doing it since I started which must be getting close to ten years now.”

“Not everyone passes the test like Bluey. When we have a new horse and we’ve trained it behind the scenes, the next step is to take it to the trials. You definitely have to do the trails first.

"I take them there and almost try to get it to make mistakes because then we can correct them and also learn how they will respond at that stage if things go wrong.

“Before we got the two we’ve got now … Clarkie and Chevy … we probably went through six and seven horses before we got to these two. When I say six or seven, they might only have done one or two race-days only because they just weren’t cutting it.”

“They have got to tick every box otherwise it doesn’t work,” added Courtney.

“If something does go wrong and you are on a horse that isn’t going to cope with something that goes wrong, it is just a disaster,” continued Ryan.

“We pride ourselves on our horses and how we do our job. I tell Courtney she’s got a unicorn because her horse comes out looking so pretty because she prides herself on having him look immaculate. I call my bloke (Clarkie) a dingo because you’d swear he just came out of the bush … but they all do their jobs.

“All three of our horses are totally different. My fella is highly strung but I can rely on him. If something goes wrong I know he is going to be there. Courtney’s horse is a bit of a softer fella … a bit of a pretty boy … but, same thing, if something goes wrong he gets the job done … and the old fella (Bluey), well, he could do the job without you.

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“The best moment at work … well, I think one of the biggest moments I’ve had in racing was when Brownie (Damian Browne) won the Caloundra Cup on Megablast.

"You know, for what he was going through at the time … and being such a close family friend to us … to see him win that and to see all of the emotion that went with it … well, it was just great to be a part of.

“That for me, and I guess Courtney too, was a really special moment to be able to share with a friend like that.

"As a matter of interest Brownie also gave us our biggest moment off the track when we watched him win on Buffering in Dubai. That was a night we’ll never forget, for sure.

“But, at work it was that Caloundra Cup win. Brownie was pretty emotional about it. You don’t see that from him very often … unless I beat him in ping-pong. He gets pretty emotional about that,” concluded Tyrell.

Sounds like a challenge Brownie!

But that’s another story for another day.
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For now, hopefully, like me, you now have a better understanding of what a clerk of the course horse and rider are all about.

To most racegoers they remain largely an anonymous presence at the track but to the jockeys and racehorses involved in the day’s action the clerks of the course provide an essential support system for which all participants are genuinely grateful.

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