BROWNIE'S BLOG: LIVING IN UNIQUE AND DANGEROUS TIMES WE ALL NEED TO MAKE THE BEST DECISIONS

By Damian Browne | Thursday, March 19, 2020

The fact that we are currently living in unique and dangerous times goes without saying and it is equally obvious that racing is not immune from the, at times, catastrophic fallout and the chaos that the coronavirus has created.

When iconic identities like Qantas are forced into taking such drastic measures as they have you don’t have to be told how bad things. Racing too is a huge business but, like Qantas, its very existence, in the short-term at least, is wavering in the wind.

At the time of writing racing is taking place spectator free with only essential participants allowed at the track but it is not being pessimistic to suggest that it won’t take much for racing to actually be suspended altogether. We certainly hope it doesn’t to that, but nobody will be surprised if and when that announcement is made. France and England have already taken that step.

Is there anything more racing authorities can do to see off that situation?

I’ve heard that a major concern is about what happens if a jockey contracts the virus, the quarantine implications that would have on other jockeys and the impact that will have on racing being able to proceed.

It’s a hard one really. Jockeys do get sick on occasions anyway from wasting so I suppose that element of their lifestyle will make then more vulnerable to a virus than others.

Before the restrictions they would also have come into contact with quite a lot of different people throughout the race-day. That number has been brought down because racing is now owner-free, but the jockey group itself would still be a point of concern.

You can try but you can’t really separate them that much in the jockey room. They have still got to walk past each other when they are trying to weigh in and weigh out. You know, they are sitting beside other jockeys in the starting gates and that distance is probably less than a metre and a half so I don’t know how it would be logistically possible to keep jockeys a safe distance apart from each other to be honest.

Raising the weights, as they have done in New Zealand and now Victoria, could be a good thing because jockeys won’t have to waste so much. It COULD be a good thing … but then what happens in six months’ time if everything goes back to normal, do they lower the weights again and will jockeys then have to get the weight off that they’ve been used to having on … which can bring its own health issues.

Jockeys would obviously be faced with the same situation if racing is suspended and they return after fair period of time out of the saddle.

Of course, maintaining the good health of everybody in the greater community, not just jockeys, is most important but, staying with racing, what about those involved in the game who have been determined to be in a high-risk category.

The elderly is one such category and I do worry … and I say this with the greatest respect and kindness to those involved … about those people in that group in racing which includes a number of trainers. That is a big concern for me.

Having said that, I think the racing authorities are doing as good a job as they can in very trying circumstances to take all best practise measures to handle the threat posed by the coronavirus.

What the next step is in a rapidly developing situation … nobody knows.

We just need to support each other and, if possible, make the best of a bad situation and, above all, make the best decisions.

Stay safe everybody.

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