Anyone help wth racing trvia ?

Question

i love my horseracing, can anyone help with any stories

of jockeys winding other jockey's up in the weighing room ?

hope you can help..?

horsemanspal seems to be in the know regarding horse racing doesn't he ? was he a trainer ?

regards......

Answer 1

haha,well 1 springs to mind,a young man came to work for me and all he wanted to be was a conditional jockey(that is the 1st step on a pro.career),he did not want to ride as an amateur .he was a good rider and after about 6 months working for me i got him his license and handed it to him on his 19th birthday,he was overjoyed.Upto this point he was a level headed,modest lad but as soon as he got his pro.license he became a bit arrogant -this was duly noted.

  His 1st ride in public was on a horse called Au-Revoir Joan(and thats another story,a well named horse),at Uttoxeter and he rode a good race and won on his 1st ride both for me and in public.Well his head really swelled after this and his father asked me what i could do to make him realise he was not gods gift to jockeys.

  I thought about this and then entered a very very lazy horse in a 3 mile hurdle race at Ludlow,the horse needed pushing down to the start and was a test for any jock let alone a young arrogant one.I made him walk the course as he had not ridden at Ludlow before,while he was doing that the other jocks,who were also in on the scam,got his crash helmet and sprayed purple spray on the forhead part ,inside the helmet.They all said nothing and let my lad lead them to the start and let him start in front,well,my horse was always going to be in the back and i told my jock to push and push and not to stop ,seeing as the race was 3 miles thats a lot of pushing!-he returned nearly last,sweating as much as any jock i had ever seen sweat.the purple spray had become free with the sweat and heat and he had large runs of purple dye all over and down his face,but he did not know this.All the other jocks allowed him to lead them all back into the unsaddling area and my arrogant lad thought it was because they aknowledged that he was the best jock!...Proudly he led them and the more the crowd looked at this funny sight the more he thought they were all admiring him,he sat up in the sadle and smiled at the crowd.I could hardly contain my laughter,and the other jocks scurried into the weighing room,as soon as my lad got to the weighing room they produced a mirror and let him see what he looked like!!..he was furious at first but soon saw the funny side and settled down to be rather more humble in the future.He is now a very good trainer in his own right and i am sure remembers the day at Ludlow very well.