Picture: Picture: Rachel Venniker after scoring her 70th win of the season on Monday aboard the Michael Roberts-trained Let’s Get Together (Gold Standard) (Candiese Lenferna).
The NHA rule change to allow 1,5kg to female riders for the entirety of their careers has met with stern opposition from most quarters.
However, following the example of the Hong Jockey Club’s allowance rules for local riders might be a sensible solution.
Local riders on the racing-mad island are given an allowance until they have ridden 250 winners at Hong Kong racecourses.
A lot of local Hong Kong riders begin their apprenticeships outside of Hong Kong, but when they arrive back on the island they start on zero wins again. Therefore, they will start with a 10 pound claim even if they have ridden more than 100 winners outside of the country.
(The only wins that do count outside of the country in such cases are ones that have Group or Listed status.)
An example is the excellent rider Matthew Poon, who was sent by the HKJC Apprentice Jockeys’ School to be trained in South Australia. He embarked in 2015 and was based with leading trainer Richard Jolly. His first race ride, a winner, came in October of that year. At the end of his first season, in July, 2016, he was crowned South Australia’s Champion Apprentice Jockey with 51 wins. His second season in Adelaide saw him ride 65 winners and at the time of his departure for Hong Kong in March 2017, he was sitting second in the South Australian jockeys championship. He attained the nickname “The Poon Train” in Australia such was his following.
However, upon return to Hong Kong he was allowed an apprentice claim of:
10 pounds until he had ridden 20 winners on the island;
7 pounds until he had ridden 45 winners;
5 pounds until 70 winners;
3 pounds until 95 winners;
Thereafter 2 pounds while still an apprentice.
However, it does not end there.
Upon ending their apprenticeship local riders are given “free lance jockey” status.
A free lance jockey’s claim has almost the same structure as an apprentice i.e. 10 pounds until 20 winners, 7 until 45, 5 until 70, and 3 until 95 (although all wins as an apprentice are also included in the official number of winners).
However, after they have passed 95 winners they continue to claim 2 pounds until they have ridden 250 winners.
Matthew Poon raced to 70 winners in Hong Kong at the second fastest rate this century and is now a fully fledged jockey.
However, he has only had 194 wins on the island in total so is still claiming 2 pounds and should be for another couple of seasons, considering he rode 34 winners this season.
This system has encouraged more local people to apply to be jockeys in what is one of the most competitive arenas in the world.
The system makes sense because it is a touch unfair on young locals that they have to compete at entry level against some of the world’s best, from all around the world, in their home country.
Likening that to South Africa, there is not the culture of racing here that England has where the like of Hollie Doyle and many other women were able to start race-riding as children in pony racing.
There will be those who will say it is still unfair even under these circumstances for women to be treated differently and will say it is kowtowing to identity politics.
However, at least it would be a compromise.
Those who support the 1,5kg claim are saying females in general do not get enough opportunity to hone their race-riding skills due to a) a view that physical strength is a factor in race-riding and females are not as naturally strong as males b) a mindset that females are generally inferior race-riders to males.
The end result of both cases a) and b) above would be that females are not given enough rides.
The many who are against the 1.5kg lifetime claim say it gives females an unfair advantage in a sport where those who are not good enough should not be separated according to gender.
One of the most worrying aspects for the adversaries of the rule change is that it has been proven, and not only in recent times, that female jockeys are potentially every bit as capable in race-riding as male jockeys.
The most glaring example in SA of the latter is Rachel Venniker, who will be crowned the country’s champion apprentice in her first full season of race riding, having competed on a level playing field with her male counterparts.
It will not only be unfair to male jockeys for her to claim an allowance, but also probably unfair on her, because if she were to ever be crowned champion jockey the feat would not be recognised by most due to the allowance.
So, the Hong Kong system ultimately separates those local jockeys who are good enough to make it from those who aren’t, but it also gives every candidate ample opportunity to prove they are good enough.
There is no better way to improve race-riding skills than race-riding itself and this system would surely be a far better solution than the 1,5kg allowance for an entire career.
