Is it sport or business? Steve looks at one of racing’s perennial questions.
It began by pitting one horse and rider against another in the spirit of competition. Yes, of course, the odd side bet followed but it was the sport which mattered most.
So it was certainly refreshing, over the past week, to hear the following responses from Zac Purton and Hugh Bowman when I asked them this question. “On raceday, do you feel like you’re going to play sport or going to work?”
“Definitely feels like I’m playing sport,” was Purton’s immediate response. “It’s not really a job for us (jockeys). I love the animal, the spirit of the competition and the chance to have a say in the result or the score.”
Bowman was of much the same view although he did concede some days got the adrenaline flowing more than others. “Feel a bit like I’m going to work today,” he said, a touch dead-pan, on Wednesday as he drove to Warwick Farm for seven rides immediately after his return from Hong Kong.
“But generally speaking,” Bowman said, “I love the challenge, especially on the big days when the pressure is intense and you’re taking on the best. I feel like I belong in that arena now.”
And that he does. If it were a tennis tournament, you’d say that Bowman and Ryan Moore would be the guaranteed finalists in any end of year play-off….with Purton, at the very least, through to the semis.
The skill, balance, timing and fearlessness demanded of our elite jockeys could well be equated, in my view, with Moto GP with the jockeys probably having to be even better in all four categories. After all, Valentino Rossi’s machine has a set of controls; steering and braking mechanisms.
Bowman and Purton have two other things in common which are undoubtedly major factors in their success. The first is fitness and I daresay they are as fit as any other athlete you’d care to aim and the other is their ability to handle pressure.
“If you’re not fit then you’re not giving yourself your best chance, not doing things properly,” said Purton, who like Bowman, undertakes several personal training sessions per week.
“Race riding is quite physically demanding but provided you haven’t pushed yourself well below a comfortable riding weight, then I think most jockeys would say they could ride in ten races on a program and then ride in another ten,” he said.
Purton, like most sportsmen, has a set game day routine and he managed to adhere to it despite having 20 people at home last Sunday morning when he won two of the four International Group One races at Sha Tin.
“It was a bit of a mad house here last weekend but I always go through my routine…a bath and a sweat and a last overview of the form. I stay relaxed. I don’t worry about the big days,” he said.
Purton also critiques his own performance. “I’m very self critical. I’ll watch the videos and assess where I might have made a mistake. A wise man once told me ‘that the best jockey is the one who makes the least mistakes and I’ve never forgotten that’,” Purton said.
It would hardly surprise that Bowman – the boy from the bush – has a similar outlook. “I’m pretty relaxed. I don’t get jittery. I’d like to think I thrive on the competition on the big days. I prefer to ride on feel and react as to how the race unfolds. That doesn’t mean I go out there oblivious to what other horses and riders may do or haven’t bothered to look at the form, it just means I don’t want to have too many preconceived ideas,” Bowman said.
Bowman, who won the International Jockeys Championship series in Hong Kong, is also focused on intense fitness training. “It’s important I think. It’s one of those things I’ve done after asking myself ‘how can I be better’,” he said.
As is the case with most other sports, there is always the risk of injury. The risk of serious injury just happens to be greater in the jockeys arena as Bowman very nearly found out, again, when one of his Wednesday mounts was caught tight and almost clipping heels, en route to claiming his IJC prize.
“Ah, yes. That was my own fault. Lack of concentration, I was not in the right spot,” he said, matter of factly, in typical Bowman fashion.
Five hundred kilograms, or more, of horseflesh racing at 60 odd kilometers per hour…controlled by men, with amazing upper and lower body strength, hanging on to a couple of bits of leather. Yep, I reckon that’s sport.
Flemington Today
Race 3 – Miss Wonderland (Snitzel) is being aimed towards the Magic Millions 3YO Classic (RL, 1400m) and does look the stand-out bet on the program, although she is cramped odds. A debut winner by six lengths, she was then placed at Group Three level during Melbourne Cup week and is now back to a 3YO Fillies BM 70. She was freshened, after Cup week, as trainer Ciaron Maher felt she wasn’t quite right. His assistant David Eustace said this week: “She looks absolutely fantastic now.’
Race 9 – Angry Gee (Al Samer) can provide us with much more value and hopefully a collect, at least each way. He’s fit and well and I think the form around his past two runs is good enough. May be wrong but rather not take the short odds being offered against the favourites Stellar Collision (Star Witness) – may have had excuses first-up but was poor; and Wolf Cry (Street Cry) who resumes from long spell after stable change. The value sits with Angry Gee (Al Samer) and Bon Rocket (Bon Hoffa) especially if recent straight pattern (wide) prevails. Danger Close (Galactic Honour) might even surprise at huge odds.