Jockey agents question

[151bar151]

I’ve always wondered – if a jockey agent takes care of more than one jockey (which is usually true and it’s also usually more than two jockeys), how does he balance between all of his jockeys so it does not end up with some of his jockeys being angry on why the other jockeys get better rides than they do? Thanks

[Nathan Hughes]

I think the owner or trainer may request a rider more often than not.?

Blackbeard to conquer the World

[151bar151]

Yes, but why have an agent then? I thought agents are useful in finding the best spare rides when the jockey is not obliged to ride for an owner or trainer in particular races, and that’s where my initial question was aimed.

[Nathan Hughes]

its an interesting question.
Agent would probably be best at putting all his jockeys names in the hat and let a trainer/owner decide

Blackbeard to conquer the World

[apracing]

My experience as an owner is that when one of my horses is running, booking a jockey works in stages. First you try to get the jockey that has most recently ridden the horse, so you contact his agent. If the agent knows, or anticipates, that the jockey you’ve asked for will be riding at a different meeting, he’ll offer you any of his other jockeys that will be at the relevant meeting. So he’s not giving any of his team priority, it’s up to us to choose from those offered. There may be other constraints, such as the weight the horse will carry, whether the horse is suited to an apprentice etc.

My next step is usually to look at which jockeys are riding in other races at the meeting, but don’t have a booked ride in our race. That may lead to contact with a different agent. In addition, agents may text my trainer advising that one or more jockeys are available to take the ride.

So to use the example of my own horse Eagle Court this year, he’s run five times. For the first two, we simply used Marco Ghiani, who has been riding for the stable since he was a 7lb claimer. Since then, Marco has been suspended more often available! For the third run, my trainer was contacted by Megan Nicholls (who used to ride for the stable) in her role as agent for Kevin Stott. He was going to be at Salisbury to ride for his retainer Amo Racing and she was looking to get him extra rides. I was more than happy to book him and that produced a short head victory.

Fourth run at Kempton, after it became clear that neither Ghiani or Stott would be at that meeting, I noted Tom Marquand had rides booked there and as he’d ridden the horse for the previous trainer, we contacted his agent and he accepted the ride. Then fifth run, because that was at Salisbury on a Saturday evening with five other meetings that day, we knew it would be difficult. Three days before the race we were able to book Sean Levey, who was riding there for Meehan. Then after we’d declared, the agent tells us Levey is going to Newmarket. My trainer than gets a text offering John Fahy. He rides for Clive Cox and if he’s good enough for him, etc.

So sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s tricky and as a small stable, we don’t have a stable jockey or a retainer. But the system does work and I can’t recall ever having to book a jockey that I really didn’t want to have on my horses.

[Author]

Posts