A winning jockey’s post-race comments after picking up a decent prize rarely stray beyond gratitude to the horse’s owner and trainer, and how much they are looking forward to being aboard next time up. “I wish I wasn’t here” is unusual, to say the least.
But that was the gist of Callum Shepherd’s comments after his win aboard Charlie’s Choice in the 5pm race at Wolverhampton on Sunday, the opener on the first of six “trial” cards over the next few weeks, which will explore the potential of Sunday evening racing to expand the sport’s audience and boost betting turnover.
“We don’t need to be here on a Sunday evening,” Shepherd told Sky Sports Racing. “I don’t think, bar maybe the festive period, there’s a great need for Sunday [Flat] racing, and certainly not Sunday evening racing.
“We might get a couple of hundred quid extra in our pockets or whatever, but I don’t think it’s healthy. I won’t be able to go and watch the football with my dad, things like that, and if this becomes a regular thing, which it will, you just cross the brink [to] having absolutely no work/life balance.
“I don’t think it’s right, but my desire to ride winners, and my desire to ride for David [Simcock, Charlie’s Choice’s trainer] outweighs that and it has to as a rider, with the dedication it requires. It’s not an option not to come, so I’ll always be available to them, but I don’t think we should be here at 8.30pm on a Sunday night.”
Of course, it was not just jockeys whose presence was demanded at Wolverhampton on Sunday evening. The paid attendance was, inevitably, in lowish three figures, but stable and racecourse staff including stewards and officials were also essential to ensure that what was, for the track and grade, an unusually valuable card went ahead, with full fields in most of the races.
This was acknowledged by Richard Wayman, the British Horseracing Authority’s chief operating officer, who was also at Wolverhampton to explain why the Authority has approved the trial.
“Callum’s comments are perfectly understandable and certainly we respect and appreciate that it does put a lot of strain on the people servicing the fixtures,” Wayman said, “whether that’s trainers, stable staff, our own officials, there’s a lot of people involved in putting a race meeting on.
Wincanton 1.00 Western Zephyr 1.30 God’s Own Getaway 2.00 Flash Gorcombe 2.30 Great Valley 3.00 Howaya Now 3.30 Siam Park 4.05 Yalla Habibi
Sedgefield 1.07 Golden De Coeur 1.37 Horacio Apple’s 2.07 Halpha Soleil 2.37 Living’s Boy An Co 3.07 Sunday Soldier 3.42 Speed Davis
Huntingdon 1.20 Bitsnbuckles 1.50 Coco Mademoiselle 2.20 Tellherthename 2.50 Kartoon And Co 3.20 Mixedwave 3.55 Jacks Touch
Wolverhampton 5.00 Sparkling Spirit 5.30 Glistening Nights 6.00 Ground Run 6.30 Better 7.00 Sibyl Charm (nb) 7.30 Come On Girl (nap) 8.00 Cephalus 8.30 Asgard’s Captain
“As part of the trial we will get feedback from all of those people as well as measuring customer demand, and at the end we will be able to take a view on whether this is something we should be thinking about longer term or not. But only by trying it do we think we’ll be able to answer that question.”
What sets jockeys apart from other racecourse workers, though – apart from the physical demands and risks that come with the job – is the fact that almost all of them are freelancers, with no set number of hours or days in their contract or the right to take a different day off in lieu. And while they could, in theory, refuse to work on a Sunday evening, in practice, as Shepherd pointed out, it simply does not work like that. If one of “their” horses is running, they need to be there to ride it or risk losing out next time.
Sunday’s card at Wolverhampton, and the meetings at other all-weather tracks over the next five weeks, are aimed almost entirely at an off-course audience, and a primary measure of its success, or otherwise, will be the amount of extra betting turnover generated. “We would like to see this meeting, compared to a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night meeting, outperform by 15 to 20%,” Wayman said. “[But] even if it does do that, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will carry on, we will consider it in the round.”
Quite how the quantitative data on betting turnover will be measured against more qualitative concerns such as the impact on work/life balance, in particular for jockeys and other workers with families, is unclear, however. How do you put a value on the mental health and wellbeing of our jockeys, or on the cost to the sport of a burnt-out rider who might otherwise have another 20 years in the saddle?
British racing needs several hundred jockeys at any given time to keep the show on the road, and the demands are such that if it becomes very close to a 365-days-a-year occupation, increasing numbers may feel that it is no longer a job worth doing. The same is also true for the many thousands of stable staff who are also vital cogs in the racing machine.
Southwell 11.20 Bradman 11.50 Nevzilla 12.20 Blue Virtue 12.55 Sunny Street 1.30 Star Zinc 2.05 Goldsmith (nb) 2.40 Reigning Profit (nap) 3.15 King Viktor 3.50 Smokey Malone
Catterick 12.10 Brucio 12.45 Bollin Matilda 1.20 Time For A Pint 1.55 Hasthing 2.30 Court At Slip 3.05 Post Chaise 3.40 Thunderclap
Chelmsford 5.30 Reverberation 6.00 Taxiing 6.30 Different Breed 7.00 Due Date 7.30 Sunset In Paris 8.00 Love De Vega 8.30 Sparkling Spirit
So while Sunday’s meeting at Wolverhampton may well hit the BHA’s 15-20% turnover target, the potential longer-term impact on racing’s workforce should not be underestimated. Shepherd’s way of thinking - “we don’t need to be here” – may well be the correct one for the sport as a whole.
