DEALING WITH THE INTERNATIONALS. IS AUSTRALIA SENDING THEM MIXED MESSAGES OR NOT?

By Graham Potter | Monday, July 6, 2020

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.

The NSW Jockey’s Association’s proposal to impose severe acceptance criteria on international jockeys wishing to ply their trade in New South Wales has opened the door to much debate.

Under the NSWJA proposal, senior international riders would need to be placed in the top three riders in an international, metropolitan, premiership precinct. Alternative acceptance criteria would be if an international jockey has won either one Group 1, two Group 2’s or three Group 3’s in the previous twelve months. The proposal also purportedly asks for ban on international apprentices.

Making their case the NSWJA argues that ‘there is no shortage of riders’ in New South Wales and that international jockeys ‘take back fees and prizemoney that could be earned by our NSW jockeys.”

The counter-argument to the NSWJA’s proposal is that the entire makeup of racing is built on competition and that the fierce spirit of that competition should not be constrained in any way. It is that challenge, the need for everybody to strive to do better if they want to compete, that keeps the sport vibrant on a global level.

In other words, you should have to earn your way against all-comers.

The crux of the matter really comes down to whether the kind of ‘protectionism’ proposed by the NSWJA will ultimately have a positive or a negative impact on the industry as a whole and on the racing product in particular … and there are supporters on both sides of that argument.

By way of contrast, racing authorities have reportedly approached the Federal Government asking for special dispensation to allow international trainers and their staff to travel to Victoria for the Spring Carnival.

Under current Covid 19 protocols, horses are allowed into the country but connections are not … that is, not at all. There is no quarantine period allocated here because they are just not allowed into the country.

That might be a whole different argument to that of the international jockeys but, in essence, it does serve as a contradiction if racing is looking to go out of its way to welcome international participants on one level and reject them on another.

While social media is not always the best guide to reasonable commentary, it is nevertheless very interesting to note that the normal, often intense, cut and thrust of social media argument is all but missing with regard to the matters mentioned above.

Instead, it is replaced, surprisingly, by an almost unanimous opinion which, at the time of writing, comes down firmly against both the NSWJA’s proposal and the racing authorities push for travel exemptions.

Most people seem to want open competition with regards to jockey’s participation and they don’t want special Covid 19 protocol allowances to be granted to the privileged few.

Either way, does it not smack of mixed messages being sent to the internationals?

What do you think?