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Q&A: How much of horse racing success depends on the jockey?
Posted by Admin on October 25th, 2011
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The jock paces the horse. The strategy may be to get to the front and stay there — or rate behind a leader, run mid-pack or trail behind the pack. A good jock with guidance from the trainer will know the right strategy for the horse given the competition. If the jock is not on the front, he or she then needs to determine the right path to get to the front, and the right timing to do it. Some jocks are not as brave as others and will take the lazy route to the outside of the pack. A brave jock, like we saw in this year’s Kentucky Derby, may take a risk and ride the shortest route along the rail. Weather also is a factor in the strategy that a jock determines. Again, following the strategy in this year’s Derby, most of the jocks did not know the track as well as Calvin Borrel and they assumed the rail would be the wettest part of the track, like most tracks. But Borrel knew better.
In summary, a good jock that is fit, sober, smart and brave is a very big factor which is why most trainers find someone good and stay with them.
Hi,
A jockey has a very dangerous job, but a very important one. He must guide the horse in the correct way as to know how his horse runs, and performs during a race. It is his responsibility to get his horse in the correct position, and know how to guide him through traffic going at very high speeds while the rest of the field is fighting to do the same. Jockey error has played a huge roll in injuries to other jockey’s and horses. The horse does the running, but it is up to the jockey to know how fast the horse runs, and when to ask the horse for his best without compromising. So the roll of a jockey is very important. Without a jockey it would be like racing a car with no driver. Hope this explains it to you.
Jockey:25% Trainer:25% HORSE:50%
Good question!
The way I’ve always looked at it, if a horse hasn’t “got the goods,” it doesn’t matter who’s riding it, a jockey can’t make a horse that’s not a runner a winner. A jockey has to have a “live” mount to work with or he’s an automatic also-ran.
And on a horse that has the talent and will to win of a Man O’ War or a Zenyatta or a Rachel Alexandra, if the rider can manage to keep the horse out of trouble, it’s pretty hard to lose. All the rider has to do is not do something stupid.
But that leaves that huge in-between area of horses that aren’t Man O’ War but still have a chance, and that’s where the rider can make a difference.
I think about rides I’ve seen, like Bill Shoemaker’s ride on Ferdinand in the Derby, or Steve Cauthen’s ride on Affirmed in the Belmont Stakes. Calvin Borel weaving his way through the field in Mine That Bird’s Derby, squeezing through on the rail. Some of the races Angel Cordero rode where he took the other riders out of their game and made them misjudge the pace, or make their moves too soon, or carried them wide and dropped in on the rail, or closed off a gap someone was trying to go through just soon enough to keep it from being a foul.
The jockey is the one who has to get the horse to relax, or to wake him up, to take him inside or outside and time his run. A rider with poor timing can lose a race, a rider with good timing can win one. A good rider can stretch a sprinter out and win at distances that aren’t the horse’s best, can compensate for a horse’s weaknesses. Can make the difference between an also-ran and a spot in the money, can make the difference between in the money and a winner.
A jockey can make a difference. And it’s worth remembering that in the defeats of some of the best horses to ever look through a bridle, horses like Man O’ War and Native Dancer, it was the ride that the horse got that apparently lost the race.
I don’t think you can quantify the difference a jockey can make, but on a live horse that has a chance to win, the jockey does make a difference.