Ray Silburn’s fall didn’t look good, and it wasn’t. Dislodged from his mount at a small-time meeting at Canberra’s unimaginatively named “Thoroughbred Park” racecourse in February, 2005, the champion local jockey was left a quadriplegic after being crushed by the weight of his 500 kilo quadruped.

“One minute I was in a race, the next I was looking up at a ceiling,” the jockey said at the annual National Jockeys Trust Lunch on Thursday, which The Punch attended. “I just wanted to move my arms so I could hug my two kids.”

Silburn’s wife left him shortly after the fall. “I experienced deep loneliness. It was very hard. I put on a brave face but deep down I was in a lot of pain and hurt. There are things you just don’t understand with the way your life has turned out and how some people treat you.”

Today, Silburn gets around in a motorised wheelchair. He is always in pain and has an unspecified condition which causes the bloating you can clearly see in this embedded video. Even at this week’s luncheon to honour him and his ilk, and to help raise money for them, he didn’t look particularly happy. He probably isn’t.

Wayne Harris won a Melbourne Cup aboard the David Hayes-trained stayer Jeune in 1994. In a blueprint of the tactics Glen Boss would employ so successfully on Makybe Diva a decade later, Harris cleverly eschewed the traditional Flemington tactic of a long sweeping run down the outside, electing instead to steal inside runs, as Jeune cleared out to win by two lengths.

In one of sports’s sweet ironies, Harris only secured the ride on Jeune at the last minute when brash, loudmouth jockey Shane Dye ditched the mount for the Hayes stablemate Top Rating.

Harris, like Dye, was full of bravado in the saddle. But he was always a gentleman away from the track. Still is. Unfortunately, being a nice guy doesn’t pay the bills.

After overcoming two brain tumours in his decorated riding career, Harris now lives in a Wollongong unit and scrounges whatever media work he can.

He hobbles, slowly and laboriously on his crutches, a legacy of a deteriorating spine condition, which itself is a legacy of a bout of meningitis. No prizes for guessing how the meningitis came about. It was a direct result of the jockey lifestyle, which for most includes frequent “wasting” sessions in saunas to shed those crucial kilos.

“Look, I’ve been pretty lucky,” Harris says. “People think you get a million dollars winning a Melbourne Cup, but they don’t think of all the hospital bills. Thankfully, with the hope of the Jockeys Association and Racing NSW I’ve been able to survive until now.”

It’s Sydney Cup day today. In fact, there are four of racing’s elite Group One races on the eight race Randwick card. As punters cheer the jockeys who win and hurl abuse at those they perceive to have cost them their hard-earned, it’s doubtful they’ll stop to consider what a jockey goes through merely to get to the post.

There are 840 registered jockeys in Australia. At least one, on average will be killed each year. In fact, 310 jockeys have been killed since organised horse racing was conducted in Australia. Tough game. By some measures, it’s Australia’s most dangerous profession.

Jockeys typically receive five per cent of prizemoney, the annual sum of which in Australia was $427 million in the 2009/10 racing season (see page 13 of the Australian Racing Factbook). That equates to just $25,000 for each of the 840 jockeys, in addition to their riding fees, which average around $150 per mount.

For the elite riders, there’s good money to be made, especially when you throw in the occasional owner’s sling, which can be another five per cent. But for most, it’s a desperately scratchy income for such a dangerous profession, especially when you include travel costs to bush racecourses, and those inevitable hospital bills.

The National Jockeys Trust was established in 2004 to raise funds for jockeys and their families in the event of serious illness, injury or death. The fund is currently seeking a significant cash injection of $5 million, to allow it to provide the type of services it was set up to provide.

There are a lot of groups in society bleating ”gimme gimme gimme” to the government, but any way you look at it, the jockeys have a fair point.

After all, racing turns over billions of dollars annually, and generates a whopping $610 million in taxes paid to state governments, and $560 million to the federal government. A $5 million dollar injection to the NJT would constitute less than a half per cent of government’s annual racing revenue. Surely that’s not too much to ask.

There are currently 76 jockeys across the country who are out of action with afflictions ranging from temporary injuries to more serious brain injuries, spinal injuries and other permanent disabilities. Sadly, there will always be more, as long as there is horse racing.

Greedy governments, who are as addicted to racing revenue as the hardest-bitten punter, should hear this. And they should do the decent thing and kick in $5 million without further ado.

21 comments

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    • persephone says:

      07:20am | 23/04/11

      If the racing industry’s doing so well, and they’re the jockeys’ employers, why aren’t they paying it?

      I suppose we can’t ask all those multi millionaire owners and trainers to contribute, when there’s the taxpayer who could be stung instead.

    • Pete from Hay says:

      07:22am | 23/04/11

      I knew a slightly too tall bush jockey who normally had no eyesight problems but wore glasses when wasting ..not good

    • TChong says:

      07:41am | 23/04/11

      As someone who, when much younger and skinnier, was destined for a career driving nags,  ( regional / rural nsw). I can make the following obsevations-
      Traditionally , horse racing industry has been almost medieval .
      The sad truth was jockeys were often runty little guys, often because of “failure to thrive “as toddlers etc, often from “poor” ( not necessarily “bad’ homes ), largely uneducated guys, with very limited prospects for skilled employment, many itinerant, and mostly completely ignorant of any type of knowledge of industry standards ( admittedly any “standard"wasnt too high)
      Jockeys were apprenticed till 21 - no formal qualification achieved, just the age reached.
      The whims of the stable owner / trainer determined the quality of life for an apprentice jockey, and the strappers.
      For jockeys,and strappers,  like the horses,the racing game is a cruelly indifferent, exploitive industry.
      Its funny ( in an ironic way) to see the racing industry so sucessfully promote its self as glamorous and exciting, when the reality is so different.
      The fact that it took until 2004 before the jockeys had a well organised , authorative voice, says a lot about the industry, and the attitude displayed to those who work(ed) in it.
      Keep fighting for all the others Ray, the industry can afford it, ,and the workers deserve it.

    • twocentsworth says:

      09:14am | 23/04/11

      Well said and so right.

    • The Civet says:

      03:39pm | 23/04/11

      At least jockeys have the right to choose if they want to get aboard a jumps horse.  The poor bloody animal doesn’t get that chance. Is the jumps industry still getting away with the furphy “Horses love to jump”. Some do, some don’t. The real killer for horses is to be forced to take the jumps at speed.

      Any hopes of Victoria falling in line with the states that have banned jumps racing, have been decimated with the advent of a Liberal government. Ted Baillieu seems to think the leader of the National Country Party-Peter Ryan-has to be genuflected to.  We are back to cattle grazing in the high country’s national parks, doing away with wind farms, and retaining the obscene business of flogging old horses over jumps for rural gentlemen’s pleasure.

    • Tim says:

      07:56am | 23/04/11

      Great article Ant.
      Although I think that rather than the government giving a one off payment, both they and the racing industry need to look at more longer term funding for injured jockeys. Without jockeys, there is no racing.

    • steve parker says:

      07:59am | 23/04/11

      I’m off to Oakbank in ten minutes - let’s hope for a clear and safe day there. I will also be interested in viewing the new natural fences being used.

    • Robert Smissen, rural SA, God's own country says:

      11:21pm | 23/04/11

      I can only hope that if a horse falls & has to be put down that they shoot the jockey who caused the fall too, I think it’s only fair.

    • Richard says:

      08:06am | 23/04/11

      NO! Look: Grow Up! Take some responsibility for your own choices and actions! Stop having a cry and a tantrum and expecting the government to pat you on the back and make it all better. What, are you a baby? Is the government your Mama? For flip’s sake, the government isn’t a fairy god mother with the power to pay for everything and grant everyone’s wishes and ensure that everyone lives happily ever after.

      Leave the government out of this! The government has enough problems right now (as the imminent budget coming next month will prove once and for all) and the responsible thing for the government to do is spend LESS money, give LESS money out to people and organisations, SHRINK itself down and BUTT OUT of interfering in people’s lives.

      The other side of that is that people have to take responsibility for themselves and their own station in life. Under capitalism, no matter where anyone is in life right now, they can succeed, despite all the handicaps in the world. No one is helpless, if only they take responsibility for themselves and pick themselves up and attack life with a purpose, they can succeed. There are infinite oppurtunities for sucess in a free-market capitalist society, so let people take responsibility for themselves and end the downward spiral of ever-increasing government handouts, which don’t teach anybody anything, except how to be a gormless moocher. They just make the situation worse.

    • Cat says:

      12:28am | 26/04/11

      “Under capitalism, no matter where anyone is in life right now, they can succeed, despite all the handicaps in the world. No one is helpless, if only they take responsibility for themselves and pick themselves up and attack life with a purpose, they can succeed. There are infinite oppurtunities for sucess in a free-market capitalist society, so let people take responsibility for themselves and end the downward spiral of ever-increasing government handouts, which don’t teach anybody anything, except how to be a gormless moocher. They just make the situation worse. ”

      methinks you may wish to wander over to the NDIS website and read some of the stories there - if you truly think anyone is capable of pulling themselves up without any help from anyone else you have led a charmed life and need to get a different perspective.  Additionally some people are helpless Richard, they just dont have much of a voice for people like you to hear them.

    • michael j says:

      08:20am | 23/04/11

      While i wish all the best to Mr Silburn,flogging horses with whips to make them go faster for entertainment is cruel and the whole thing should be banned,,,,,,,,,,,

    • Marilyn Shepherd says:

      05:06pm | 23/04/11

      I agree, I only went to the races once in Perth in 1975.  A beautiful stallion fell and broke his leg and was shot on the track.

      It was terrible to hear him screaming in agony yet he had no choice about the clown on his back whipping and beating him to run faster.

      It is barbarism.

    • Jotun says:

      11:11am | 23/04/11

      Why doesn’t the racing industry demand health standards and guidelines for jockeys? That would surely help. Heck, get them legislated.

    • Glen says:

      01:34pm | 23/04/11

      Why didn’t this guy’s accountant advise income protection insurance? I’m sure even jockeys can get that. End of story.

    • Cat says:

      12:30am | 26/04/11

      IPI wont cover the increased bills associated with serious disability, I wonder if workers comp. applies though?

    • Pete says:

      02:24pm | 23/04/11

      Sad story, but like everyone else commenting, I say ‘what the hell has it got to do with the government?’. Just because you tax it doesn’t mean you have take responsibility for all the stupidiy/exploitation/greed that goes with it. The jockey’s plight is the racing industry, and there’s alone.This country’s entitlement culture is its death-knell.

    • Bikinis On Top says:

      04:48pm | 23/04/11

      Greedy Governments only exist at the state level in New South Wales,Victoria, Western Australia, and New Zealand.

    • stephen says:

      08:07pm | 23/04/11

      I know where you live.
      Be quiet.

    • Paul says:

      12:04pm | 24/04/11

      The racing industry needs to take a long hard look at itself.
      Either acknowledge that jockeys need to carry more of their own weight to be healthy or breed monkeys to do the job.

    • Harquebus says:

      10:55am | 25/04/11

      If I was stupid enough to install that Flash garbage, I could watch the video but, I ain’t that stupid.

    • Ray says:

      04:04pm | 27/05/11

      Well all I can say after reading most of your comments about the story most of you wouldn’t have a clue in what you are saying or what we are trying to achieve everybody thinks jockeys lives are easy how many of you guys get up at 330 every morning to go to work and work seven days a week but that’s not the story I read that someone said why don’t you have income insurance while you might find that the insurance companies don’t want to insure jockeys and workers Comp changes in every state in what you’re entitled to I should know I had to fight the ACT government to get the workers Comp change because insurance companies hide behind the different acts in different States in what you’re entitled to
      and Robert I love your remark about when all falls and needs to be put down that they should shoot a jockey as well do you really think it is the jockeys fault that they fall I hope in your case Robert if you ever have an accident that somebody would want to shoot you as well
      and I think I am probably the best person to know exactly what happens to jockeys and what they’re entitled to and how hard for anyone not just jockeys to get assistance after an accident
      and my name is Ray the person in that video trying to raise funds and awareness to help people and myself I would love anyone to volunteer to spend a week in my life and see how they feel and see if they would want to do the same thing

 

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