giving the journeyman an Easier ride.

​It is to hoped that when it comes to sport the cream will always rise to the top. I suspect, as all sportsman (and women) are subject to the same frailties as the rest of us, that on occasion any one of a number of personality traits, including inherent lack of confidence, can blight even the greatest of talents. And, of course, in sport as in life, there can only be a limited number of ‘winners’ per day, per month, per year.
That does not mean governing bodies of individual sports should allow fate to become an absolute dictator of success and failure. We all live our lives within the whimsical realm of fate. I could step out of my front door this morning and be knocked to kingdom-come by a pimply-faced skate-boarding teenager using the pavement as his own personal Cresta Run. Or the skate-boarder might find himself knocked into the path of a hairy V.W. hatchback driven by a wishful-thinking Ayrton Senna wannabe imagining himself baring down on Lewis Hamilton on his way to Superdrug or his gran’s. I do believe, though, that people who strive for success, especially in a sport that is dangerous and requires sacrifice, should be given the opportunity to prove their true worth. The chance to fail with grace, if you like.
I am going to guess that there are a million race meetings per calendar year in this country. I might be wrong. It might be ten or twenty less than a million; it does though seem like a million, especially while the flat overlaps with National Hunt during the winter and vice-versa during the summer. Whatever the actual figure, it is obviously too many. Everyone agrees. It is perhaps the closest to uniformity of thinking that exists in racing today.
Racecourses, obviously, are businesses and each and every racecourse in Britain and Ireland is precious, worthy of listed status. In an ever-increasing urbanised world of tarmac and brick racecourses provide, especially when located in cities and towns, a green oasis of nature and fresh air. They must survive. But do the smaller courses need De Sousa, Murphy, Johnson or Skelton at every meeting to draw a profit-making crowd. I doubt it.
In a clear depiction of the work ethic of jockeys (or is it greed?) much was made of the jockeys riding at Chester in the afternoon before flying down to Chelmsford for the evening meeting there. But is such devotion to the job really necessary and should the B.H.A. be sanctioning, even encouraging, such a strenuous work-load?
Of course, to prevent a jockey, who is after all self-employed, accepting whatever number of rides he or she is offered could be seen as a restraint of trade. A jockey only has a relatively short career, on top of which they will doubtless have a mortgage to pay and a family to support. It can also be argued, that as their largest overhead is the cost of travelling to and from race-meetings, which for those jockeys who are grateful to be offered one ride a day can steal any profit from their day’s work.
The point, indeed suggestion, I am labouring to make is this: why not have whole race-meetings restricted to jockeys who have only ridden a certain number of winners in the previous six or twelve months. In the past I have advocated one race per card, three or four times a week. Yet in Ireland recently the whole of a National Hunt card was restricted to these lesser, though in many instances equally talented, men and women of the weighing room. During the summer, when the field sizes are usually on the small side, a meeting a week, perhaps in the evening, could be similarly designed, giving opportunity to those who work equally as hard as the ‘big boys’, drive as many miles, without the aid of a chauffeur, and whose only wish is to be given an even break. How often have you heard a jockey described as ‘seriously underrated? Or ‘underused’?
Would the number of spectators at an evening fixture in April at Wolverhampton be affected in the top jockeys were not in attendance or a fixture at Fontwell in May? Would betting turnover be adversely affected? Are the names of Moore, Dettori, Johnson or Skelton used by racecourses when advertising meetings?
The female only jockeys meeting at Carlisle has proved a rip-roaring success, not that I am suggesting that an all-journeyman meeting would hit such heights. But what I propose would take only pennies from the pockets of Messrs Moore, Murphy, Kirby etc, whilst on the flip-side would allow them more quality time with their loved-ones, and in the main restrict the wear and tear on their cars and lower their travelling costs.
Owners who retain their own jockey will be disadvantaged at times if this suggestion were to become adopted and trainers would occasionally have to take a chance on a lesser experienced jockey but overall I believe turning whole meetings, perhaps one or two a week, to the type of jockey who daily help keep the show on the road, the jockeys who bravely throw a leg over horses the top jockeys wouldn’t touch with a jewel-encrusted barge-pole, can only bring benefits to both the individual and the sport.