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I have not heard that! That would be awsome. I know its always at Fair Hill. My good buddy Jody Petty rode the winner last year. Then he broke his collar bone in the first race the following spring. Gotta love this sport hahaha
You should try to get over for a Cheltenham Festival Jamey. I am sure you would be absolutely blown away by the atmosphere and the standard of the racing.
Who knows – if you spread the word around, or even approached Cheltenham, you might be able to conjure up a ride. I’m sure they’d be very interested in having an international flavour to things.
hahaha I would love to some day but I really need to get my confidence up here first. Im by no means the best rider or even close to it. When I get to a point where I believe I can do it, I really would. I think it would probably be the highlight of my life to ride there.
Quote: from PAULCS on 10:49 pm on Sep. 2, 2006[br]<br>I’m sure I heard that the Breeders Cup Steeplechase is going to be included on the main Breeders Cup night for the first time this year – anyone know if this is true?<br>
No it’s again to be held at Far Hills the Saturday before the Breeders’ Cup.
I don’t believe it should be held on Breeders’ Cup day. It’s a hell of an effort for everyone to ship in for just 1 race. Saratoga this year being a case in point. Only 1 race a week-every Thursday. If the jockeys weren’t employed up there during the meet-as an example Robert Massey I think was with Godolphin-then they had to ride work at home on Wednesday-drive up to Saratoga arriving on Wednesday evening. Ride the 1st race and then turn for home to be back riding work early in the morning on Friday.
True but it would allow a great showcase. I am a big supporter of mixed meetings anyway as they have in Ireland.
Jamey….the purses sound quite high to us! our point to point scene has purses of only $300 !
Is any US jumps racing televised? How about general press coverage? I was stunned that the death of one of our top jumps trainers was reported in the US press a fair bit online.
Are there ine or two big sponsor there who really supports jumps racing? If so who?
Well our point to points are the same purses you have. In my first win I won $1,000. Those races dont count toward a horses record either. As far as sponsorships go…usually its a local back. And aside from the Breeders Cup jump race, and those races held at tracks like Keeneland, Saratoga, and Colonial Downs (which are shown on TVG) races are not televised. Its to bad in my opinion.
our jumps jocks ride all year round now; so fitness is not ususallya problem; though a worry is their dedication..particularly with people like AP Mccoy. <br>When some jumps jocks retire though they pile on the weight; to the extent often where some are hard to imagine as ever having been jockeys.
So what is your fitness programme like , and what do you do off season? What weight to you have to ride at, what diet etc?
Also, is there a similar camaraderie in the weighing room that there is here?
Sure…I think anywhere that a bunch of guys share a common sport or passion, there will be camaraderie. BUT, as we always say, you have no friends on the track. There are certainly a bunch of jocks that just dont get along. I try to treat the other riders with respect and maybe it will pay off for me down the road. So I enjoy weighing in. We always have a great time.
I am actually a very lucky jockey. I have a metabolism that could rival Michael Phelps (Olympic swimmer) I really dont have to watch my weight at all for now. I eat what I want to a certain point. I can make 130lbs if I worked at my weight for a few days. But I could easily ride with tack at 140lbs right now. The general weight for jump races varies depending on the bug rider weight, the allowance and all that. But generally races run at 145lbs to 155lbs. But as far as the off season, I lift weights, I cycle alot with groups and I swim even more. But riding will keep me fit enough.
Quote: from GreenGreenDesert on 3:19 pm on Sep. 3, 2006[br]True but it would allow a great showcase. I am a big supporter of mixed meetings anyway as they have in Ireland.
Jamey….the purses sound quite high to us! our point to point scene has purses of only $300 !
Is any US jumps racing televised? How about general press coverage? I was stunned that the death of one of our top jumps trainers was reported in the US press a fair bit online.
Are there ine or two big sponsor there who really supports jumps racing? If so who?<br>
<br>I don’t think that the TV networks want any more races to the Breeders’ Cup day-it’s a miracle that they show the 8 races-if another was added you would probably only end up with a 2 hour show which would be delayed because the College Tiddylwinks game went into extra time.
To be honest I wouldn’t want the Breeders’ Cup Chase wasted on Breeders’ Cup day. I went to it last year and despite it being an absolutely miserable day weather wise a massive crowd turned out-paying $50 in advance and $100 on the day-4 times as many who paid $3 and $5 to go State Bred day at Belmont that afternoon.
Besides the psyche of modern day American racing fans can’t take seeing even the softest falls.
Thats for damn sure….a horse goes down, and theyre all up in arms b/c we made the horse run. My response is usually along the lines of "The horses I ride are athletes just as much as me, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong. You cant MAKE 1200lb animal do anything it doesnt want to and more often then not, they enjoy it more than we do." Oh well.
What gets me is that the same people are happy to use the horses as a betting medium, without any love or real contact with them. <br>Nobody feels the loss of a horse more than the jockey, stable girl, and owner and trainer. The fact that the jumps game is not commercially motivated, and often uses the enthusiasm of horses bored by the flat, demonstrates for me it is about passion and real horse savvy.
If you had the choice Jamey to ride at top level at jumps or flat, honestly, which would it be?
I can only imagine never having ridden in a race the enormous trust and bond between a horse and rider…each trusting each other with their life when both are adrenalin pumped…it must be amazing. I think unique in the animal kingdom.
Can you describe how that feels, and about any special horses that you have had that bond with? Can you take us through the last stages of a race which was memorable for you?
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 12:34 am on Sep. 4, 2006)
Good questioncomment. Actually very recently, my family lost a horse in a jumo race. If you go to that webpage I posted earlier, and go to racing videos, I have posted the video of his horiffic fall. The horse’s name was Southern Tequila. He was a very handsome, friendly and steel hearted horse. He was always trying his hardest and unfortunatly he made a mistake. We dont know what happened but he went down as hard as Ive ever seen a horse go down. He shattered his shoulder. He was put down on the track. Our family was devastated. The bond between trainer, owner, jockey, and horse is very strong in many cases. Not all unforunatly but with our particular stable we care for the horses as if they were our flesh and blood. In my case, my horse Bold Turn and I have a special bond. He was my first ride and he was my last ride. I own him, train him and ride him. He is by no means a world beater but he is so much fun and will give his best 100% of the time. I guess a particular race that I remember would be my first and only win ( I told you I wasnt that good :D) but the race was a small point to point flat race and the race has ironically scratched down to two horses. Me and one other gray gelding. Bold Turn and I started well and he immediatly pulled me to the front. That horse can pull your damn arms off when he wants. He dragged me around the course but was vigilant of what I wanted when I wanted it. We galloped down onto the backstretch leading the race and I looked back and saw my rival was off to my outside. I backed Bold Turn back a little and let the other horse come up to me a bit. This did what I had hoped and my horse surged forward again with a burst of competitive adrenaline. I let him go on gaining speed as we came up to the very tight last turn and just absolutly turned on the gas. He FLEW across the line. It was SUCH a fun race even though it was only against one other horse. I will always remember standing in the winners circle.
Hi USJJ,
The only US import into our jumps arena in the last year that I can think of has been Unalienable Right, who seemed at least to have some modicum of US hurdles form on paper (always very hard to know how best to quantify wins in foreign jumps races when they’re not obviously top-class contests) but has been utterly hopeless in low-grade hurdles and chases over here, usually tearing off in front before running out of puff after a mile. Do you know this yoke, and if so, just how good – or otherwise – was he given to be back home?
As well as the aformentioned Morley Street, one other British horse I remember going to the US – in fact I think he stayed there – was that fine old marathon chaser Usher’s Island, for whom it was reckoned the predominately very fast ground would be right up his street. How did he get on, does anybody know?
Another question to the floor – can someone fill me in on what those UK / US "Sport of Kings" challenge hurdles from 10-15 years ago actually entailed? I distinctly remember a 2m hurdle at Cheltenham relatively early on in its season, in which two British horses took on Serenity Prayer of Bruce Miller’s US yard. Presumably this was the return leg of a similar contest or set of contests somewhere back in the States?
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)
<br>(Edited by graysonscolumn at 6:49 pm on Sep. 4, 2006)<br>
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 6:50 pm on Sep. 4, 2006)
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
From what Ive heard and remember, Unalienable Right was a bit of an ass often doing what you said and tearing off with the rider in tow. But for whatever reason, sometimes US hurdles alow you to do that and get away with it. Ive seen many a race stollen by a horse tear off and just not come back. So in answer, he wasnt a bad horse by any means. Just not Hirapour, McDynamo or Sur La Tete
Thankyou for the answer about your horse you lost; it must have been difficult to recall. …but nice to hear the bond you had with him and the fact you celebrate him.
The Sport of kings Challenge was mentioned at Cheltenham…..do you think something like this would be supported in future by US trainers? What would be the prospects of seeing a big timber race winner run at say Pardubice or in the cross country at cheltenham? Would I be right in thinking that this type of horse would be more suited to such tasks, and are there trainers there who may consider such a course?
Also what would be your season this year…the expected highlights and horses you are looking forward to riding? How many rides will you have for example, and how diffiicult is it to get outside rides…ie from trainers you do not know?
I seem to have missed the boat a bit here but welcome aboard Jamey.
I remember seeing Xavier Aizpuru (sp?) riding at Colonial a few weeks back in quite possibly the slowest race I’ve ever seen (that includes the 2001 National).
Anyway, knowing little about US ‘chasing outsides of Hirapour, McDynamo and Snowy… (races in Carolina I think) which are the main tracks?
The horses that Dai Williams takes for the timber races <br>in Virginia next month are former German St.Leger winner "Hanko", and "Make it Easy". He believes they are both much better horses over timber than normal fences, and he will campaign them if all goes well until November in Pennsylvania.
He had some success last time he visited and of course has won The Marlborough Cup, the UKs main timber race on a couple of occassions, beating the best American horse on one occassion.
My question to you Jamey, is have there been many changes in the last few years re the standard , number etc of horses competing in timber races?
He said last time he went one race in which one of his horses finished 2nd has a field of about 16, though the average was about 6 per race. What can he expect this time , as I say in terms of quality and quantity of opposition? Has the competirion got fiercer or weaker in the last few years in your opinion ?
It is probably worth you meeting up with Dai and Lucy (owner rider) at some point while they are there.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 3:47 pm on Sep. 6, 2006)
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