Jockeys protest over phone ban
They left the weighing room en masse in between the first and second races at Leicester, and staged a similar protest at Hamilton.
The jockeys at Leicester, who included champion Kieren Fallon, walked arm in arm outside the racetrack to the side of the road, where they are not restricted in using their mobiles, before returning in time for the second race.
They took the action in response to new Jockey Club rules which state that from yesterday no jockey with a ride can use his or her mobile anywhere on the racecourse from half an hour before the first race until the last has started.
The measures have been imposed as a result of security concerns following a high-profile court case in which it was revealed that mobile phones were used to pass on information.
Instead, jockeys can only use one of three phones provided by weighing room security officers.
Richard Hills, fresh from scoring on favourite Al Sifaat in Leicester's opener, said: "It's like being back at school, being told to stand in the corner to talk to owners and trainers.
"We all work very long hours and with all the travelling we don't need this nonsense.
"Sometimes we don't have time to talk to owners in the morning due to riding out, so now we're being told we can't talk to anybody at work. It is basically ridiculous.
"Let's hope after today's protest that we can sit down with the Jockey Club and sort this problem out. All we want to do is to come to the races and do what we're paid for - that's race-ride."
Campaign leader Philip Robinson, who has set up a fighting fund and employed the services of solicitor Martin Cruddace, of Schillings, said: "I don't know why we are being treated like this. Do they think we are gangsters or just schoolkids?
"I think what they are doing is doing racing more harm than good. I can't remember such a situation like this before."
About 45 minutes before the first race Jockey Club weighing room security officer Robin Knott gave all the jockeys a pep talk about the new ruling.
Jockey Club senior stewards' secretary William Nunneley, who travelled specially to Leicester to see how jockeys reacted to the ban, said: "Anybody with any good suggestions to make, the Jockey Club would be pleased to listen to them.
"What we don't want is to have a jockey passing on information by his mobile phone in the weighing room in the corner.
"We are hoping that people are going to be grown up about this and I feel confident the fines, which are £250 to £300, will not be used. I am hoping people come to their senses sensibly."
It was a similar story at Hamilton, where riders posed for photographs when using their mobile phones in between races out on the main road outside the racecourse complex.
Kevin Darley, the Jockeys' Association joint-president, said: "We do not want to go to war with the Jockey Club. None of us want to be without our mobile phones they are part of our work.
"So at our AGM at York we had a meeting, and what the meeting did was to bring everybody together.
"We all agreed that if they would compromise we would all bend a little bit and say, okay, if you need a restriction, then all well and good.
"They came back and said what the restrictions are that we have got to use Jockey Club phones in restricted areas, and if there aren't any available, we can use our own.
"We think it is petty, but if they put three chairs in the weighing room and the security officer sat there, and if we used the phones in that area, it would be much more simple than us having to use their (Jockey Club) phones, punch a pin number in and then see if we can get a line. We haven't got the time to do that in between races.
"They are dragging this on out of all proportion. We are trying to tell them it could be so simple. It is so frustrating. We are trying to play ball with them, but they don't want to make it simple.
"We have got nothing to hide. We want to do it for the integrity of racing as much as they do.
"They are saying that information is coming out of the weighing room it just doesn't happen. It is so silly. They are making it difficult, not us it would be dead and buried in five minutes if they would just compromise."
