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No wonder Clive Smiths colours are Yellow, and as for P.Nicholls his should have a yellow streak down them!
Poppycock! It is 100% the choice of the owner. He is not investing 100s of thousands of his cash just so he can worry about the feelings of a jockey.
It’s a pity that Clive Smith has chosen AP to ride Master Minded ahead of Sam Thomas.
Obviously a business decision.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Totally agree Underscore. I think there is a striong element of Nichols/smith bashing involved here (certainly on another forum..where it was to be expected)
Hes been dropped . Tough. So what?
As an example it happens to cricketers all the time and its not always their fault (a handful of dodgy decisions…confidence slips)
The match comes first, second and third
The legend that is A.P will know the racing world will be watching him closer than ever when he approaches those 3 railway fences!!
It’s a pity that Clive Smith has chosen AP to ride Master Minded ahead of Sam Thomas.
Obviously a business decision.
Clive Smith doesn’t owe Sam Thomas anything. I don’t know what the arrangements are at Nicholls’s as far as retainers or contracts but I doubt Smith has any obligation to use anybody. Yeah its a tough one for Thomas, but thats the sport and its not like he’s ridden the horse to plenty of victories to get it ready and suddenly is missing a big one.
Nicholls told him not to fall off either Kauto or Big Bucks.
very goodI’ve never really understood the racing public’s obsession with jockeys, in the same way I don’t understand the obsession with racing-car drivers. What is underneath them matters: hoss or engine.
This maligning of Nicholls and Smith is unjustified, for the reasons given by Underscore and Clivex.
Somewhere on this thread the idea was proposed that Walsh and McCoy are more unlikely to suffer falls/unseats. Any stats to prove this viz ejections as a percentage of total rides?
It was Golden Freeze that was used to unsettle Carvills Hill [allegedly]
Correct but there was nothing wrong with that. All Golden Freeze did was continually jump alongside Carvills Hill. The way some people went on at the time you’d have thought the horse jumped on top of Carvills and held him pinned to the turf.
Whilst I wouldn’t personally rate Sam Thomas in the top 10 jump jockeys riding in the UK today and it is comparatively easy to look good riding for the champion trainer, clearly he has been shabbily treated in missing out on a high profile ride which as Nicholls’s designated No2 he would have been expected to get.He didn’t do too much wrong as Walsh’s deputy last season and neither Kauto Star nor Big Buck’s inspire as bombproof jumpers.A couple of falls yesterday hardly helped his cause either.
The decision is no surprise whatsoever in the fickle world of racing. Yes, the owner pays the bills and is therefore always right but what price loyalty? In the good old days a trainer like Peter Walwyn lost owners and horses out of loyalty to his jockey.
In his book "Riding the Storm" Timmy Murphy explains what it was like riding for Nicholls, who is dependent on a select clutch of wealthy self made businessmen owners both for his yard and most of the top horses.The impression is that they put pressure on Nicholls who then puts it onto the jockey. The same band hardly showed too much loyalty towards either Tizzard or Murphy did they? (admittedly the latter self destructed on the second occasion). One feels that outside their amiable veneer when interviewed on TV, some of these people are used to getting what they want.
Finally, the notion that Thomas will be all the better for being taken out of the firing line and regrouping is laughable.The old adage is that if you fall off your bike, you get back on. He has hardly had a ringing endorsement from owner and trainer- how is that of benefit to his confidence?
Does it necessary follow that in, Walsh’s absence, Sam Thomas should automaticlly pick-up the best rides in the yard, just by dint of being No.2 stable jockey? I’m not so sure that it does.
Clearly, Sam was employed primarily to ride those horses that Ruby chooses to discard, or to attend the minor meeting for his guvnor, whilst Ruby rides at the day’s main meeting.
It doesn’t necessarily follow that the stable see him as a ‘supersub’ for Walsh for whenever he is out injured or with suspension, as he has essentially only been employed to ride the ‘second-tier’ horses in the yard anyway (notwithstanding the fact that most of those are pretty handy too).
Perhaps if a McCoy, or a Thornton had been available to take the ride in the Gold Cup, we may have seen one of them get the leg-up on Denman, rather than Sam Thomas.
Its strikes me that some people believe that stables are employed to look after jockeys first and the horses second
Grasshopper is right…. (said through clenched teeth…
)Does it necessary follow that in, Walsh’s absence, Sam Thomas should automaticlly pick-up the best rides in the yard, just by dint of being No.2 stable jockey? I’m not so sure that it does.
It doesn’t necessarily follow that the stable see him as a ‘supersub’ for Walsh for whenever he is out injured or with suspension, as he has essentially only been employed to ride the ‘second-tier’ horses in the yard anyway (notwithstanding the fact that most of those are pretty handy too
Grasshopper,
So why did connections use Sam last year to ride Kauto, Twist, Denman etc when there were plenty of other jockeys available,
would it be that Sam is stable No2.As his employer, P.N. has a duty of care to Sam Thomas. That should extend to his mental well-being. If Sam is suffering from a crisis of confidence then perhaps the answer would be for P.N. to enter lots of his horses into easily winnable races and give Sam the opportunity to churn out a few winners. If, on the other hand, he continues to experience falls then sack him and employ that Ryan Mania guy.
Firefox/GWILSON77, my point is that there are probably only one or two other jockey’s (maximum) that the stable would likely consider opting for over Sam Thomas. If both are already engaged by their own trainer/retainer, then the decision is a no brainer for Nicholls.
If McCoy happened to be available for last year’s BetFair Chase (he didn’t take the ride on Exotic Dancer, and was at Ascot for JP) , who is to say that he wouldn’t have been asked to take the ride?
I don’t agree with that, Ken. Jockeys are freelancers/contractors, some of whom align themselves with certain yards/owners, because it suits both parties to do so. Under such circumstances, any duty of care is not applicable in the same sense as it would for a member of the yard staff, for example.
Clivex, in your heart, you know I’m always right.
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