Battle lines have been drawn and trenches dug in the latest dispute between the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and Britain’s Flat jockeys, and the two sides seem set for a protracted struggle.
At issue is the racecourse sauna, which was, for generations of riders, a daily point of call until Covid-19 prompted to their closure, as a measure to prevent spread of the virus when racing went behind closed doors. The Professional Jockeys’ Association (PJA) insists that a majority of its members now want the saunas back, while the BHA is equally adamant that it is not going to happen.
Neither side, as things stand, seems likely to back down and both, in their own way, claim to have the riders’ best interests at heart.
While the PJA is concerned with the day-to-day impact and practicalities of operating without racecourse saunas and the potential impact on both the physical and mental health of jockeys, the BHA takes a more general view of the dangers of rapid, short-term dehydration on a regular – perhaps daily – basis.
It also points out that the decision to close racecourse saunas permanently after the pandemic was supported by 88 per cent of the 190 jockeys who responded to a PJA survey, and that it was also part of a wider scheme to significantly upgrade weighing-room facilities, which also had the riders’ full support.
In essence, the BHA and Dr Jerry Hill, its chief medical adviser, see dehydrated jockeys as a risk to themselves and to others. Not an obvious or overwhelming risk, admittedly, but one of those low-probability risks that lots of people get away with for years. Until one day, they don’t, and everyone suddenly asks why it was ever allowed in the first place.
The PJA’s members, though, face a day-to-day struggle to get rides and know that their livelihood could depend on losing a swift pound or two before a race. Getting beaten by a short-head when you have put up 1lb overweight is the stuff of every rider’s nightmares.
But this is where it all gets messy, from the BHA’s point of view in particular. The Authority needs to juggle the interests and concerns of all stakeholders, and while owners and trainers hate jockeys putting up overweight, they are also concerned about the steady – and in some respects, hidden – rise in the actual weights that horses are carrying.
Racehorses are not officially mature until they are five years old, so the majority of runners on the Flat are still growing and developing. At some point, the actual weight they carry will become a potential welfare issue, for two-year-olds in particular.
When saunas were closed in 2020, Flat jockeys received a 3lb allowance – ie they could weigh out at an extra 3lb on top of the published weight without being officially “overweight” – to go with an established 3lb allowance to cover their body protector.
This is where punters – the other big revenue stream for racing alongside the owners – enter the Authority’s considerations, as any disparity between published weights and actual weights carried also has implications for anyone weighing up a bet. This was another issue to ponder when the BHA moved to make the temporary ban on saunas permanent.
The PJA’s vote in favour of the sauna ban was on the basis that the 3lb allowance would be maintained. In the end, however, the BHA opted to raise all published weights by 2lb while increasing the body-protector allowance to 4lb. That should, in theory, have amounted to much the same thing, but what looked like a rational solution on paper has not survived contact with the day-to-day reality of jockeys’ lives.
The expectation was that riders who had previously had a minimum of, say, 8st 10lb would now have a minimum of 8st 12lb instead. In practice, they still find it impossible to turn down rides at 8st 10lb and continue to look for ways to shed the extra weight.
Tom Marquand, who is currently second in the jockeys’ championship, told the latest edition of the Final Furlong Podcast that some riders are stopping off at local gyms to use the sauna – at £20 or £30 a pop. Others, more worryingly, are driving to the races, often for several hours, with the heating on full blast.
So where is this going to end? Ruling bodies are always reluctant to reverse policy decisions, and the BHA is convinced that the ban on racecourse saunas is in the best long-term interests not just of jockeys, but the sport as a whole. At a significant number of tracks, meanwhile, the sauna has been removed as part of the general improvement in weighing-room facilities, and it could be ruinously expensive to find a way to put them all back.
So if, as seems likely, the saunas are gone for good, the BHA may need to find a different way to reallocate – or hide – a return of the 3lb Covid allowance. Otherwise, we are set for many months of ongoing, simmering anger in the weighing room, and jockeys on the motorway in midsummer with the heating turned up to 11. – Guardian
