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Just seen the winning jockey as Southwell efer to the trainer as “Mr Fell”.
When I first started watching racing, lots of jockeys referred to trainers as “Mister”. It still happens but not as often.
Is this just a case of good manners?
Or is it a silly anachronism that makes racing look out of date?
Or does it not matter at all?
Deference never dies.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Doesn’t matter
My sons friends call me Mr Hughes and rightfully so after drinking all the juice in my fridgeGaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
I think it’s good manners.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysIf they want to, that’s up to them but equally if they don’t then nobody should make them.
Nobody at my work uses anything other than a first name to each other regardless of their place in the hierarchy.
It sounds silly. Always thought so
Especially when they say it about Jessica Harrington
I recall Alan Munro being interviewed by Julian Wilson the year Generous won The Derby, referring to Paul Cole as “Paul” and IIRC, Julian Wilson then immediately asking Munro a question with the phrase “Mr Cole” in it as if gently admonishing him.
Munro just scowled briefly at Wilson upon hearing it, and then proceeded to completely ignore that and carried on speaking in exactly the same tone as before.
I decided I rather liked Munro after that.
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"It doesn’t matter in the slightest but I’m sure that the degree of familiarity the rider has with the trainer is an important factor, as is the jockey’s seniority.
In what other sport would a sportsperson call their boss/employer ‘Mr’? It doesn’t bother me too much, but it does seem to be a throwback to when it was ‘master & serf’/ Know your place….
Agree. It’s a bit pathetic
And no one has answered the question. What if say micheal stoute turns up as a French maid and wants to be called Doris?
Is he still a mister ?
I heard Ed Dunlop call Oisin Murphy “Murphy” outside the Lingfield weigh room a few years ago
To be fair Murphy has been called worse over the last year …mostly in Newmarket boozers
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
There seem to be so many young trainers now there’s more chance of them calling the jockeys mister.
Matt Chapman interviewed Taylor Fisher (17) following the jockey’s win on Talamanca at Windsor yesterday, eliciting this response to an enquiry about his short history:
“I moved to Hannon’s from Balding’s after school straightaway…I got my license at Hannon’s then I moved to Archie Watson…”
Call me old-fashioned but I believe a little more deference wouldn’t have gone amiss.
What’s good for the goose might also be good for the gander..
Hello, Mr Piggott. Very nice to see you over here again. We don’t see you that often any more.
I don’t come over that much really. Now and again, for big races. I’ll go up to Newmarket and see a few of the old boys, there are a few of the old jockeys still left, we catch up on things. People sometimes come over to Switzerland to see me, of course, but that’s different, y’know?
You’re over here to lend the people at Great British Racing a hand, to present the trophy to the new champion jockey at Ascot on Champions Day…..
…You mentioned Scobie Breasley earlier. Of all the top jockeys you rode with – Roger Poincelet, Jimmy Lindley, Bill Williamson, Pat Eddery, so many others – was he the one with whom you had the greatest rivalry?
Scobie was a lot older than me, I think he got married on the day I was born, but we had a good rivalry, I suppose. He’d be over 100 now if he was still alive, so there was quite an age gap.[ Amazed he doesn’t know the living or not status of his old rival] When I first started he was old then. He was a very good rider, rode the typical Australian way, which has gone out of fashion now. Another jockey I remember well was Yves Saint-Martin, I rode against him for years and years, he was a very good jockey, one of the best. He rode all those good horses for Francois Mathet and Angel Penna. But there’ve been so many good jockeys over the years that you could never say ‘oh, he was the best’ about any of them.
Not even you?
[A beaming smile transfigures the Piggott visage, and he chuckles again]. Impossible to tell, isn’t it?
I suppose it’s the same with horses. You can’t really say this one was the best, or that one was better, they’re from different eras. Did you see the Arc? What did you think of Golden Horn?
He’s a good horse.
That’s quite a Lester-y answer. Did you think anything else?
“Call me old-fashioned but I believe a little more deference wouldn’t have gone amiss.”
You’re old fashioned – “deference” is the most ghastly concept known to man (or woman).
Here’s my brand of old fashioned: “All men (and women) are equal – both on the Turf and under it.”
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"
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