BEN'S BEAT: HELPING APPRENTICES AND LOVING IT!

By Ben Saunders with Graham Potter | Friday, July 5, 2019

You don’t want to know what put Ben Saunders in a wheelchair. Suffice to say that the injuries he suffered in a trackwork fall just over two years ago were substantial and life-changing. Visit Toowoomba or any other track which he covers in his role as a mentor to apprentice jockeys for Racing Queensland and you will be sure to either hear his laugh, see his smile or watch him in action as he serves from a menu of advice to the apprentices who can relate so easily to friendly but fair approach which is encompassed by an amazing positive mindset. HRO is pleased to announce that Ben has joined HRO as a regular editorial contributor. Today we welcome and introduce Ben, on debut as a columnist, and look forward to todays and all of the future insights he will share with HRO readers.

My position as mentor to the apprentices came about through Racing Queensland and Workers Comp and their policy to help those in the industry in to get back into the workforce.

It was the ideal place for me to start so I was lucky in the respect that I was viewed as the number one candidate for the role.

I do Toowoomba. I go to Warwick … to Dalby … to Gatton, but I am quite prepared to go anywhere.

If I see something in a race I that I feel should be pointed out to an apprentice I will do point it out if I think it is very important. I certainly won’t hold back in that scenario.

With less important matters that still need to be brought to their attention I will just generally drop little hints along the way. Sometimes proving a hint is the way to go to get them to take things on board.

Also, whether they have let the horse roll a little bit quick, or got a little bit tight when they could have avoided it and are going to be called in before the stewards I talk to them to get minds on their role they might have played in what happened so that they can be thinking about the situation prior to getting into the stewards room.

It can be hard with apprentices on occasions because sometimes they do lack discipline and direction and at times like that don’t necessarily well to people in roles of authority.

Having said that, the apprentices here are very accepting of me because I come from a role of having spent forty years in the industry … and at least thirty of them, probably more, have been here in Toowoomba so they know what I’m about and that I am here to help them.

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The other thing that I have had to come to terms with is the changing landscape as it applies to apprentices.

Today it seems that there are more mature apprentices. In my day we started when we were fifteen. You never saw a cent until you were twenty-one.

Today the apprentices all receive their earnings as they go … so they need more tutoring now, apart from anything else, in financial organisation and what to do at tax time etc.

Half of them are married as well. They have got families. They wouldn’t be able to exist today on the way it worked in my day.

The fact that, as I mentioned, they are coming into it later … at eighteen, some are seventeen … means they have got a little life experience. Any of that experience can help them in ways that you wouldn’t necessarily think of … like just driving a car can help you ride in a race.

Being media savvy is another thing. Again, it is a currency in their schooling as an apprentice. It is an extra where they learn how to do publicise themselves … and how to handle the media in general because they are not always going to be totally comfortable with every situation and subject.

Then there are the riding styles. I think today we have a more European style of riding. They do ride a little looser and there has been a change over time just in their mannerisms on horseback.

Personally, I think a jockey’s style is something he has from the first time he sits on a horse … that’s their natural style. People around them can tweak it but how much they want to tweak it is really up to them.

Trying to copy somebody else’s style who might have been successful doesn’t mean that you will be successful or even an improved rider.

Take Jeff Lloyd for example. His own particular style works for him. If a lot of others try to follow his lead, some of them would probably fall off the horse.

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The job has been, and continues to be, a great experience for me.

I love it.

I have had to get off the fence of the old days and accept the way things have travelled. Seeing things from both sides … the old and the new … for a very long time, it’s all been about letting go of the past and thinking about the future.

So, I’m making the most of things for myself and hopefully helping others at the same time.

My father blessed me with initiative. If you are put in tight situations you make the best you of what is available. That is the attitude he blessed me with and I will always thank him for that.

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