Farmer lets 14 of his 21 horses starve to death in a bare, drought-stricken Queensland paddock dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For every beer swigging pizza eating racehorse like Nettoyer to give you some perspective on this great game, you need an Addeybb (or Verry Elleegant) and better spelling!
The former makes racing in Australia real and achievable to all at all levels – the old anyone can win tag – the latter pits International competition, an Arabian owned British Bulldog against the other by a $500 Kiwi stallion that big players bought into the dream.
Only in Australia. And only can happen in our best races.
Put aside corner room lofty discussions that Golden Sixty (from Hong Kong), Mishriff (from England via France and Saudi Arabia) or Contrail (via Japan) are higher rated – whatever that means - Australian racing survives on a rare egalitarianism that makes our racing so vibrant and unique.
RSN927
TRACK RIDERS AS RARE AS HEN’S TEETH AS CRISIS DEEPENS
April 6, 2021 9:40 am
By Matt Stewart, Racing Editor
Racing’s nationwide staff crisis will be laid bare when over 100 participants, from trainers to administrators, meet later this month.
The
Australian Trainers Association estimates that Australia is at least 200 track riders “short” as the effect of visa restrictions, and then
COVID, decimate rider ranks, leading to unprecedented poaching between stables as trainers struggle to find capable staff.
The recent drug sweep at
Ballarat, where six of the 40 track riders were benched by stewards, highlighted not just the issue of drugs in racing and society but also the volatility of staff numbers.
To paraphrase a successful senior jockey – good riders don’t need instructions and bad ones don’t follow them .
I note this in the wake of another messaging own goal coming from Racing Australia in a seemingly bizarrely timed Good Friday eve statement announcing an amendment to the Rules of Racing in relation to riding instructions.
This is the one that cemented jockeys only receive riding instructions from a trainer or owner of the horse they are riding.
Again in seeking – in RA’s own words – they didn’t want jockeys to be confused by receiving “conflicting riding instructions”.
Where did this come from? Where were the serious concerns raised, discussed, tabled and wrapped into this change? Which were later written away as merely formalising a “chain of command”, if you can get your head around that.
Link to Share
Racing Australia has moved to tighten-up betting rules concerning jockeys in the wake of a failed conviction last year for a jockey allegedly betting on overseas races.
In recent days, Racing Australia announced amendments to Australian Racing Rule 115, which covers the law on jockeys betting. The rule has been in force since March, 2019 when it was written into the rules with the intention of closing some of the loopholes initially covered by AR 83.
But the new rule had a loophole itself which the legal team of jockey Ben Melham used to clear one of seven original betting charges as it dealt with alleged bets on races in Singapore.