Turf Club's major safety review
A specially commissioned Safety Review Group announced their findings yesterday after almost six months of deliberations, meetings and submissions. The end result was a document outlining 99 recommendations, the vast majority of which have already been accepted by the Turf Club and many of which will be implemented immediately.
Ranging from the issue of general racecourse safety to the suitability of horses, it is the related problems of dehydration and minimum riding weights as well as that concerning safety equipment and helmets in particular which will be of chief interest.
Riders struggling to reach specific weights for races has long been a major issue in the sport, but the findings of the report suggest that it is an even greater problem that previously imagined with the issue of sunbeds carrying the can for much of the problem.
"The health issues in the report are the most worrying," said Dennis Egan, Chief Executive of the Turf Club yesterday.
"The results of the dehydration study reveal that there is a major problem with dehydration. Far greater than we thought. This fact has also been borne out by the amount of time it takes riders to produce a urine sample for drug testing. It's frightening to think that it takes some riders up to three hours to produce a 75ml sample of urine," he said.
Authorities in Australia have already banned sunbeds from racecourses but when they were put up for sale they were bought en-masse by the jockeys themselves. Clearly, it will be hard to change the prevailing culture.
"With immediate affect, riders stood down for dehydration will be off for at least 48 hours at a time," said Mr Egan.
"We also intend to send 20 riders to Giles Warrington who is the head of player and athlete services at the NCTC in Limerick University to be assessed with the view of establishing reasonable bodyweight goals for each of the riders.
"Based on each rider's bodyweight we will ascertain what a competitive weight would be for each of the riders. This information would be used to evaluate the weight structures."
The fact is that jockeys are fighting a losing battle in attempting to conform to existing weight divisions. In simple terms, we are all getting heavier, not just riders. In 1978, the average weight on entry to a race was 81lbs. In 2002 it was 100lbs. Yet, between 1989 and 2003 minimum weights only increased by 5lbs despite the fact that the average weight of human beings went up by three times that figure.
The Safety and Review Group is recommending that the minimum weight for Flat racing should rise from 7st12lbs to 8st and for National Hunt racing from 9st7lbs to 9st10lbs. Also, the minimum weight for Group races, Listed, Auction and Claiming races on the flat should not be lower than 8st5lbs. These changes will be implemented as soon as possible.
Leading National Hunt jockey Conor O'Dwyer welcomed the changes but stressed that it would take time for the current culture to change.
"It's going to be hard for jockeys because it's been a way of life for them from the time they started. You just sweated and that was it," he said.
"People have become bigger though and that's a fact. For the younger people coming into the game it's going to be real benefit.
"If they're taught early of different ways they can adapt to that culture, whereas for lads who are at it longer it will be harder to change. It's a culture thing really. It's going to take a long time to change it. It's not going to be changed overnight."
Of equal concern is the safety equipment issue. Both Kelly and Cleary died as a result of head injuries last year and the issue of helmets is one that the Turf Cub is looking at with great urgency.
"There is already an EU standard which all racing helmets must meet, but it became obvious that there was a shortage of sizes available," said Egan yesterday. "Head injuries can be caused by helmets rotating on a riders' head and this occurs more frequently the longer a helmet is in use."
