Fás under fire for cancelling jockey course

FÁS has been accused of dashing the dreams of 32 young apprentice jockeys after their training course was cancelled without notice.

The state training agency said last week it would not release annual funding of €350,000 for the latest intake of trainees to the course which has been run at the Curragh for the last 33 years.

The youngsters, aged 15-18, were selected from over 100 candidates at a week-long assessment camp in July and were expecting to begin classes – a combination of schoolwork and jockey training – at the live-in facility run by the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (RACE) in mid-August, but the start date was postponed for a month. They were then informed by RACE last Thursday that the course would not be going ahead this year, but got no clear explanation as to why.