- This topic has 520 replies, 60 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 2 months ago by
.
- Posts
“Any idea why that might be, o white, straight male heir to a racing dynasty whose brother and father’s partner between them have doled out more than 300 rides to various jockeys already this season?”
Spot on again Green!
BUY THE SUN
Just listened to the final furlong podcast on the case and it is one of the best podcasts I’ve heard. Pulls no punches and Rory degravy is always great to listen to. I know emmet isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but this was truly a great listen. IMHO of course.
The panel has released its written findings:
It seems every eejit wants to get into the horse racing media business and I’m no different. I like writing so decided to make up a quick blog of some thoughts on the Frost/Dunne case that are written in a manner not really suitable for forums.
It’s a short enough read and not another bloody podcast you have to listen to.
Frost and Dunne – What’s to Blame? https://50peachway.wordpress.com/2022/01/10/frost-and-dunne-whats-to-blame/
If there’s a problem with posting this here let me know and I’ll delete the post. I just want to get a bit of promotion on this (it’s not for me to earn money) because I think I’m a genius or at the least can put a few words together.
I can see why dunne thought it was just the normal weighing room behaviour but there must be a point when it moves from letting off steam to intimidation and bullying. That’s when senior jocks should have had a quiet word with him. I agree there is nobody to set boundaries in the weighing room but the fact they all circled the wagons instead of facing up to today realities shows they won’t change the culture unless they are forced to. The drop off in frosts rides shows the resentment towards frost and its not a good look those outside the racing bubble.
Had dunne apologised profusely way back this could have been nipped in the bud but his terrible defence of it was the culture shows the issue will not suddenly be fixed.
Do we think the same thing won’t happen again. I’d bet a large sum it will until we do have someone taking charge.
I’m sure struthers stood down partly due to the jockeys intransigence and Holmes ridiculous piece on itv.
It shouldn’t be a them and us situation just ensuring the weighing room is policed properly would ensure we don’t have to go through the massive amount of negative publicity again.Not sure she has had a drop off in rides per say as she is still riding for the same trainers and I remember Nicholls saying a few years ago that they were always going to be selective with booking her rides in that they weren’t going to just book rides for the sake of it where she could end up on poor jumping horses and risk injury from falling.
Looking at her stats she is currently on 36 wins from 176 rides, (a S/R of 20%) which puts her 20th in the table with still around 3 months of the season left to go. Of the jockeys above her in the table, in terms of total rides the closest to her is Aiden Coleman who is on 46 wins from 211 rides (a S/R of 22%) and sits in 11th place. Also there are only 5 jockeys above her in the table with a better S/R currently.
If you compare her stats to last year where she had a total of 47 wins from 317 rides, (a S/R of 15%) and finished 17th in the table and the year prior to that (2019/20) when she was 45 from 311 rides (a S/R of 14%) and was 15th in the table she is well on course to have her most successful season numerically (if not positionally in the table) and assuming she doesn’t pick up any lengthy injuries or bans it is a fair bet to say that she will comfortably crack 50 winners for the season.
All of that whilst having to deal with a number of her fellow jockey’s and her union pretty much hanging her out to dry as she is subjected to a campaign of months long abusive behaviour is in the words of the late great David Coleman……….quite remarkable!
Self policing doesn’t work and it shouldn’t be the job of so-called “senior jockeys” to admonish other jockeys who, regardless of age and experience, are fellow competitors in a ruthless individual sport.
All adjudication over any jockey’s ride should start and end with competent professional stewards.
It’s down to the referee and assistant referees, not the other players, to interpret and enforce the rules.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"The jockeys all said self policing worked. Mmmm. Makes you wonder if there are more cases waiting to come out. It doesn’t work and someone has to take control of the weighing room or we will be back on the front pages of the papers very soon.
Self-Policing is probably great if you are ‘in the club’, in any walk of life. Recipe for disaster, ideal for bullies and arse lickers.
BUY THE SUN
If by self policing jockeys mean turning a blind eye to the continued abusive behaviour from one of their fellow colleagues to another or not even accepting that clear abusive language is being used in the first place then I guess the weighing room is being policed to the highest standards possible.
Change will need to be forced upon them as they clearly aren’t capable of joining the rest of us in the real world of their own volition.
Enjoyed reading your blog FiftyP, and I think it articulates very well the highly unusual working environment that jockeys operate in. A lot of the coverage of Frost/Dunne has alluded to this without making clear why it is so. It helps to understanding the “bubble” that the jockeys exist in and how it makes it a fertile environment for problems to arise. Of course none of this goes as far as to excuse Dunne’s abhorrent behaviour.
Where the few people who are there to represent and support the jockeys originate from the same culture, and outsiders struggle to gain influence, this is a problem that is going to be difficult to crack.
Thanks Marlingford. You’ve gotten from it what I wanted to get across. A lot of people are rightfully outraged for Frost, something I agree with, but few seem willing to look at the bigger picture of how uniquely alone jockeys as a profession of individuals are.
For me that’s why it appears like there’s a lot of heads-in-sand from them. They just want to get on with things, they’re used to high competition, high pressure and little support, so why should a round of articles in The Racing Post and national newspapers change anything?
It’s a little arrogant but my dream would be one young (or even old) jockey would read what I wrote and talk to a therapist or sports psychologist, not about getting better in the horse racing game, but just about how to look after their own health and how to get a proper balance to their outlook and life. You hear about how people have to sacrifice so much to get to the top of any industry but there has to be more to life than just that struggle. If that meant less superstar riders, and more bad rides across the whole racing game I’d take it. As a punter it’s just not worth it for me if people are figuratively destroying themselves for it.
I doubt a lot of jockeys go into their profession because they want any great degree of admiration from or interaction with the public. They operate in a very public space of course and it’s unavoidable to some extent, but for many it’s probably an added unwelcome pressure.
They aren’t public servants, yet run the gamut of public scrutiny of their performance and actions like few others. I can certainly see how this adds to the culture of closing ranks when they are criticised.
I don’t know how the rates for suicide and mental health issues for jockeys compare to other professions, but suspect they are probably high.
I wouldn’t be close to what goes on (or doesn’t) in the weighing room but from an integrity point of view it’d be important that there didn’t exist a weighing room heirarchy where certain jockeys, through force of personality, seniority, coercion or plain bullying, were able to control what went on out on the track.
There have been, and are, plenty high profile cases where jockeys have faced issues with drinking, drug taking and mental health issues leading, in some cases, to tragic life stories and early curtailment of lives.
They do face unique pressures that could be considered unusual in relative terms to other jobs, although most jobs have their stresses.
Having to constantly battle weight problems must be crippling mentally and physically for those who struggle with it. The amount of travelling. Long days, up to ride out, travel long distances to race meetings and then late back at night. for the less successful ones I don’t think it is particularly lucrative. Then there is performance pressure from trainers and owners, one howler and you could lose many rides and the patronage of an owner or trainer at any time. Add to the mix the dangers of physical harm, the almost certain inevitability of significant injury at some stage, often repeatedly for jump jockeys, and recovery periods where they may have little or no income.
If there are bullying issues or an unhealthy atmosphere in weighing rooms that would be an icing on an already toxic cake.
I think the support that is there is probably light years ahead of where it was a decade or two ago but the idea of them self-policing is not a good one. The weighing room needs to be independently observed somehow to ensure that there are no inherent problems brewing and jockeys need to feel they have a safe place to turn to when they feel there are any issues. But what that looks like in practical terms I am not sure.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.