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Racing: Jockeys in walkouts against ban on phones

Richard Edmondson
Tuesday 02 September 2003 00:00 BST
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The unlikely militants of the jockeys' weighing room staged racecourse walkouts in England and Scotland yesterday in protest over the enforced silencing of their mobile phones during work hours.

The first day of the restrictions yesterday were met by the desertion of changing rooms at Hamilton and Leicester, where Kieren Fallon was among those who took action after the first race. The riders emerged en masse and walked arm in arm to the side of the road before returning in time for the second contest.

The Leicester protesters made calls and received text messages. It was a similar story on the main road outside Hamilton, where jockeys posed for photographs while using their mobile phones between races.

The industrial action follows the Jockey Club's new practice of banning the use of personal mobiles from 30 minutes before the first race until either the jockey leaves the track campus or the start of the last race.

It is a reaction to the "Wright Trials" of 2000 and 2001, when it emerged that last minute information was being relayed via mobiles from the weighing room to professional gamblers.

The Jockey Club, who now offer three of their own phones for riders to make calls in a designated area, believe the new rules will improve the integrity of racing. The jockeys themselves consider the moves petty and insulting.

"It's like being back at school, being told to stand in the corner to talk to owners and trainers," Richard Hills, who won the pre-walkout race at Leicester on Al Sifaat, said. "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."

A Jockey Club representative at the Midlands course was William Nunneley, the senior stewards' secretary. "Anybody with any good suggestions to make, the Jockey Club would be pleased to listen to them," he said. "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."

Under interim measures, jockeys are able to check their own mobiles for messages within a designated area, use their own equipment if a Jockey Club telephone is not available and not have their calls recorded. But those concessions do not go far enough for the riders.

Kevin Darley, the Jockeys' Association joint-president, who was at Hamilton yesterday, said: "They [the Jockey Club] 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. We have got nothing to hide. We want to do it for the integrity of racing as much as they do.

"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 annual general meeting at York we had a discussion, 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 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 do not want to make it simple."

Royal profits Saunders

Malcolm Saunders burned his fingers on his only previous visit to Hamilton but the Somerset trainer was all smiles yesterday when Bali Royal prevailed in a thrilling finish to the £38,000 betfair.com Flower Of Scotland Stakes.

Dominica, the favourite, lost out to Bali Royal by a short-head. The winner was having only her second run for Saunders, the mare having previously been with Milton Bradley. Her owners switched stables after she was left out of the Stewards' Cup entries in error.

Saunders said: "I'm pleased for her owners, Bob Manning and Bob Goddard. I've known them for 20 years." Recalling that earlier trip to the course, he added: "I've only been here once before in my life. I backed one of mine really seriously, but he finished third."

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