the indecision of n. henderson & giving jockeys an even break.

​It is a good job for the B.H.A. vet sent to inspect Altior that this minor league farrago erupted in early January and not late February when Nicky Henderson goes teetotal for the month leading up to Cheltenham, otherwise the master of Seven Barrows might not have been so welcoming. I thought it an insult to the integrity of the man that the B.H.A. should even consider he had ulterior motives in declaring Altior a non-runner without actually proceeding to immediately scratch the horse. Horses can be like children – at death’s door one night and out causing mischief the next. He wanted to run Altior even though his instincts were suggesting it would be unwise. The great trainers take decisions through a combination of experience and an intelligence of equines that is pure instinct. As always, as it should be, Henderson was putting the welfare of the horse before all other considerations.
As Alan Hanson was once famous for saying when analysing defenders, indecision is final and I believe Altior’s season which is very much on the back foot might have been otherwise if Nicky Henderson had taken my advice and run Altior over 3-miles at the end of last season. If he had done so, and many times my advice has proved as sound as a pound, he would have started this season knowing whether to stick to 2-miles or go up in distance. As the situation is of now, he has probably come to the right decision to stay at 2-miles, even if the Champion 2-mile Chase could be far hotter this season than in the previous two seasons. What I hope he will decide to do though after Cheltenham is to run Altior at Aintree over 3-miles, if only to put the debate to bed once and for all.
 
Without providing a solution, the Racing Post today highlighted the financial and career difficulties of those jockeys who have become known as ‘journeymen’. There will always be jockeys who struggle to make a living, as in the real world, and in other sports, there are those who fate deals a good hand and they take full advantage, whilst others either fail to take advantage of the good hand or who fate refuses to give an even break to. That doesn’t mean, though, that the B.H.A. can ignore their plight. The Irish racing authorities, where the situation is perhaps even worse for the ‘journeymen’, though they choose to give a helping hand.
Since the days of the old Sporting Life, I have suggested there should be two or three races per week, flat and National Hunt, restricted to jockeys who have ridden less than a certain number of winners in the past six or twelve months. This number could be ten or fifteen at the start of a season and incrementally increasing as the season progresses. Such an initiative would come at no cost to racing’s finances as the races already exist and only need restrictions on jockeys added to the conditions.
Journeymen jockeys are not inferior specimens of the breed. They are hard-working, conscientious men and women who possess the skill and bravery to commit to what is a dangerous occupation. To the spectator horse racing is an entertainment but to those in silks it is a means to pay the mortgage and to feed the children. They are more than bit-part players in the day-to-day drama of our sport.
There is also the integrity of the sport at play here, also. The jockey with money problems is more likely to be corrupted by outside influences than those at the top of the sport. When you are scraping along at the bottom of the pile the temptation to pull a horse – given the scenario that they ever get offered a ride with a favourite’s chance of winning – or offer inside information in exchange for reward, must be very hard to resist. If ‘restricted jockey’ races were introduced – and if we can have celebrity and amateur races, apprentice and conditional races, why not? – these men and women would as often as not be riding horses with chances of winning. The cream of the jockeys will always rise to the top but ‘restricted jockey’ races would help prevent those at the lower end going sour. I cannot understand why the B.H.A. turn their nose up at the idea. Or indeed why the Professional Jockeys Association do not lobby for the initiative.
If these races were always the first or last race, the top jockeys would benefit as it would give them either an extra half-hour to get to the races or they could set-off home half-hour earlier, and financially they would hardly notice a difference. This is a win-win idea costing zilch and yet neither the sport’s industry paper or, at least to my knowledge, the racing channels and I.T.V. have debated it.
In Ireland, where they had an entire card devoted to ‘journeymen jockeys’, the initiative was soundly praised and considered a success. I rest my case.