The arrogance, the sheer bloody arrogance and pig-headedness of Australian Racing Board chief Andrew Harding and his cronies.
Harding turfed the concerns of jockeys out the window yesterday after they formally approached the board seeking minor amendments to new whipping rules.
Under the new laws which were brought in on August 1, jockeys have numerous restrictions on the number of times they can “whip” their mounts with the soft, padded whips in mandatory use nowadays.
Two of the most senior jockeys in the country, Corey Brown and Damien Oliver, could have asked for plenty of changes on behalf of their colleagues. But they didn’t. All they requested was the right to wield the whip at their own discretion over the last 100m of the race, if their mount happens to be in contention to win.
As a summary, there are three extremely good reasons why jockeys wanted this right.
1. The laws of racing
Racing’s rule books contain rainforests of legalese detailing the specific obligation of jockeys to give their mounts every conceivable chance to win, and to ride them out to the line with all due vigour.
2. Horse safety
Controlled use of this heavily-padded, leather-free implement in the last half furlong actually helps tired horses go straight. Which means less dangerous incidents.
3. Jockey Safety
Jockeys have a lot to think about in races. Safety, timing and strategy are just three of many. Now, they’ve being asked to count how many times they use the whip as well. All this aboard a half-tonne beast travelling at 70 km/h. That’s like telling the guy flying the traffic helicopter to do the actual traffic reporting and hell, while you’re at it, why not the news, sports and weather too.
Whether you’re a shirtless punter or hemp-wearing animal welfare advocate, there’s really not much to argue with here. And like I say, jockeys were only seeking a minor concession at the very margins of the new rules.
So what did the unbelievably smug Andrew Harding call their requests? “A dummy spit”.
He also said, in a staggering grab for the title of Australia’s most self-serving sports administrator, “You don’t change what’s right, just because it’s unpopular”. No wonder jockeys walked off the job yesterday in disgust.
Sanitise, sanitise, sanitise. That’s the mantra of modern sports administrators. Increase sport’s mass appeal by eroding its soul and – in cases such as this one – the very foundations of its competitiveness.
The AFL has stamped out all but the gentlest shoves in its dream of luring in families and people who don’t get dirty for a living.
Now racing is catering head-on to the fashionistas and binge drinkers who have turned the spring racing carnival into a party to which a few horses are invited –presumably because some marketing type told them the partygoers don’t like to see the nice horsies getting hurt. Which as I’ve said, effectively no longer happens.
By the way, I want to go on the record here as saying I only buy free range eggs and abhor animal cruelty. Last year, I thrilled to a brilliant series of columns by The Australian’s Patrick Smith on the madness called “jumps racing”, which I believe to be horse-killing dressed up as sport.
Smith came out strongly against the jockeys today. In this stance, he is as far from reality as his annual Melbourne Cup tip – and has undermined much of his agenda-setting work on jumps racing.
This is not an issue about cruelty to dumb animals. It is, however, clearly a story of cruelty on the part of some very dumb humans.
POST SCRIPT:
Jockeys walked off the job on Thursday at four relatively minor midweek meetings in four states. The exception was Ballina, where jockeys decided to keep riding as the NSW north coast town was having its Cup day, with a huge crowd in attendance.
The Ballina Cup was won by a 30-1 shot called “All Our Way”, and ridden by 46 year old jockey Neil Paine, who gave a wild, celebratory flourish of the whip as he passed the post. Oh, the irony.
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