WE grasp at straws.

​The Global Jockeys Challenge series proposed for next season, though with little detail yet provided above the aspiration for such an event, is flawed and unlikely to achieve what its proponents wish for it.
The reason I say it is flawed, and I believe I said the same about the David Power Cup when it was announced, is that the jockeys are not the stars of our sport, and I defend that point of view by asking readers to say out loud the name of our sport. Horse Racing. It is not Jockey Racing. And any attempt to put the jockey before the horse will be grasped by our opponents as humans making use of a beautiful creature for its own selfish ends.
The G.J.C. is proposed to give us a world champion jockey, in the same way Formula 1 appoints a world champion car driver. Yet the series will not take in any of the established great horse races staged around the world. The best will not be paired with the best. The best, at best, will be paired with handicappers. To return to Formula 1, the equivalent of which would be to take away the high-powered single seaters and ask Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton and others to risk their necks driving road cars around the Grand Prix circuits of the world.
Let us assume for the purposes of argument’s sake that Ryan Moore is the best jockey riding anywhere around the world at the moment. If he were to finish in last place in the G.J.C., which as this series will be draw-based as far as horse allocation is concerned, with ground, stall-position and circumstance leading factors in any race, would this mean that our opinion of Moore would be evidenced as wrong?
This concept is profit-lead, especially as the jockeys must make a contribution both financial and commitment-wise. And this is only going to contribute to an already, in Britain if nowhere else, bloated race programme and smaller field-sizes either side of meetings that stage races for the G.J.C.
Given the prompting behind this concept is to boost jockeys’ profiles, and to promote the sport to a larger public around the world, it would do aeons of good if some of the profit from the series went to rehabilitation and care programmes for retired racehorses. As I said quietly earlier, the sport is named after its main contributor when it comes to effort and sacrifice, the horse.
How this series can be fitted into a race programme that in Britain, if not in the other countries who will host the G.J.C., is literally flat-out from May to November and is an aspect of this proposal I believe the originators have not even addressed in their haste to announce the name of their ‘baby’ to the world. Given the 12-jockeys named for the series will be 12 of the busiest jockeys in the world, with commitments and contracts that all add-up to make them as rich as they already are, it would seem an impossible task to get all of them in 12 different rooms across the world all at the same time.
Also, in a world desperate for diversity, inclusion and equality of the sexes, it was a poor overlook to not include a G.J.C. for the best female jockeys to run parallel to the male G.J.C.. This would be easier to achieve, given that even the very best female flat jockeys are not given the same opportunities afforded to their male colleagues. 
I view the Global Jockeys’ Challenge as more an aspiration than a promise of improvement for the sport to come. Flat racing is not the dominant sport in any country around the world and in Britain and Ireland it is not too far a stretch to say that National Hunt is more popular amongst the public. I doubt if too many non-racing people could name 3 current flat jockeys, though without Rachael Blackmore that might now be said about National Hunt racing, now I come to think about it.
There is no need to promote jockeys as superstars when racing results are narrated by beginning with the name of the horse, followed by the starting odds. Jockeys work seven-days-a-week, working more hours than any other sportsman/woman. With those that work the hardest and longest amongst those who achieve the most meagre of rewards for their dedicated service to the sport. The Global Jockeys’ Challenge will not go a thousand-miles close to addressing the problems of those who operate at the lowest rungs of the sport. Making rich jockeys richer will do very little to help the sport rise higher in the estimations of the sporting and non-sporting public.