As an industry mourns, should racing take a breather?

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Following the catastrophic news on Monday afternoon that jockey Dean Holland has passed away after a fall in Race 1 at Donald, Racing Victoria (RV), in conjunction with the Victorian Jockeys’ Association (VJA), determined that Tuesday’s ANZAC Day race meetings at Flemington and Moe would not proceed as programmed, out of respect to Dean and the Holland family.

The race-free day enabled the Victorian racing industry to mourn, and a number of participants, primarily jockeys - Holland’s peers, caught up to celebrate his life by sharing stories and raising a glass, at the Ascot Vale Hotel.

Come Wednesday, though, the races were back on, with the Ballarat Turf Club hosting a seven-race midweek card.

The decision to proceed was met with a mixed response. Some are of the opinion it is too soon and RV should have cancelled some Victorian meetings (if not the five meetings until Saturday, at least the Wednesday program), while others reckon it’s better to play on and try and return to some form of normality.

Former jockey, James Winks, who was Holland’s mentor, sits firmly in the camp of the former, and on Tuesday, he told The Age: “It would be like a football club – if six didn’t want to play and the others wanted to, it’s a bit hard on the others.

“From my personal perspective, if one can’t ride, they all can’t ride. It’s not an injury, it’s a death. Just say, ‘we’re off until Saturday’ and everyone can wrap their head around it, and then you can look at the individual thing.

“That’d be me. I’m close to it and I know how everyone feels.”

Current jockey Ben Allen, another of Winks’ clients, would normally have ridden at Ballarat on Wednesday, but he relinquished his rides.

Allen told TDN AusNZ, “It just doesn’t feel right.”

“I don’t feel like going to the races after something like that has happened, especially when it’s something like a freak accident like that. I feel like I need a few days to get over it,” Allen said.

“Another day or so away from it will do me good.

“Someone like (jockey) Jordan Childs was a lot closer to Dean than I was and it’s had a huge impact on me, so I can only imagine how they feel.”

The safety aspect

One facet the power brokers had to seriously consider is whether the jockeys would be clear of mind and in a position to execute their skills to the best of their ability. There is little margin for error when you’re dealing with 500kg-plus beasts thundering along at 45-odd kmph.

And racing in Victoria can ill-afford another fall, given the tragedy followed a spate of recent race falls, which saw senior jockeys Jamie Kah, Craig Williams, Ethan Brown, Mark Zahra and Teo Nugent all dislodged in successive weeks during March at metropolitan meetings. Kah, one of the world’s best jockeys, is yet to return to the saddle after suffering a heavy concussion from her fall at Flemington on March 11, and she has spent time at a rehabilitation facility after a fortnight at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Veteran Melbourne racing journalist Matt Stewart was staunch in his view on Wednesday that RV should have taken the decision out of the jockeys’ hands.

“I strongly feel that the decision should have been taken out of Matt Hyland’s (CEO of the VJA) hands, it should have been taken out of the individual jockeys’ hands, it should have been taken out of Ballarat’s hands, and I think RV should have had a good overview of the whole situation, in light of the backstory with the previous falls,” Stewart told RSN.

“They (RV) should have said, ‘If ever there’s a time where we take the foot off the pedal and take a breath and suspend racing for an extended period of time, this is it’. If it’s not now, it’s never.”

Allen concurred.

“I feel like they should have (made the decision to call the races off), I tend to agree with what ‘Winsky’ (James Winks) said,” said Allen. “It allows people more time to get over it; everyone going to the races… that’s all that will be on their mind, it’s pretty raw, it’s only just happened.

“You’re just going there in the wrong headspace to what you should be going to the races in, really. And if you’re not in the right headspace, it’s not really safe for you and those around you.”

RV CEO, Andrew Jones, also spoke on RSN on Wednesday, and he was asked whether the governing body gave consideration to cancelling more meetings, not just the two on Tuesday.

Jones said: “It’s really a consultation process. We (RV and the VJA) spoke (Tuesday) morning and his view was that giving riders the choice to get back to work (Wednesday) was the right one, noting that there was no expectation or obligation of riders to ride, but also noting that people will deal with this in different ways; some jockeys probably won’t want to go near a horse for a few days and others will literally want to get back on the horse and get back to some form of normalcy as soon as they can.”

Incidentally, Jones was the Chief Executive Officer at Cricket New South Wales when the late Phil Hughes was felled by a bouncer and subsequently died. The two remaining active Sheffield Shield matches were abandoned, while India’s second tour match in Adelaide was cancelled as Australian cricket took a 'grief now, sport later' approach.

Asked whether RV should have made the call to cancel meetings, rather than leave it up to individuals, Jones said: “It’s a bit of both. Our job as administrators is to work out the best answer and you do that by consulting people who know what they’re talking about, and you consult widely.

“If you put the collective intelligence to work, you usually get the best answer. You will get a range of views, of course, but you will come out with what you think is the best answer. We took the choice out of peoples’ hands (on Tuesday) and (on Wednesday) we’re giving them the choice again.”