Life As I Know It by Michelle Payne

Author:Michelle Payne [Payne, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing

The life of a jockey sometimes borders on the absurd, and when you stand back and look at it you wonder why anyone would pursue it. A typical day begins at around 3 a.m. after just four, five or six hours of sleep. I sleep very soundly because I am constantly tired. I use any spare moment I have to catch some sleep, even if it’s only thirty minutes. Better than nothing.

I drive myself to the city venues for trackwork and race meetings, and often to country meetings. It takes over three hours to get to Warrnambool and Hamilton and four hours to Horsham. But if I am getting a lift with someone I will try to sleep, or catch up on phone calls and text messages. Jockeys are always on the phone communicating with trainers and owners, even when they have managers. Phillip Roost has looked after my rides since Joan retired. He has been a fantastic manager.

Trainers want to talk about recent performances and what’s next for a horse. While they know their horses well and generally have in mind the direction of a horse’s campaign, and have worked out where the horse will start next; sometimes it’s not so clear-cut. They seek the advice of a jockey and discuss the previous start in a race, the nature of the performance, and the qualities of a horse. You become closer to some trainers and, as they respect you and your performances, they might use you for all of their horses. Or you might develop a relationship with a single horse, and the trainer lets you become that horse’s rider. That doesn’t always work out because jockeys get injured, suspended and have schedule clashes, having to ride at other venues. But a jockey will stick to a good horse and do whatever they can to retain the ride. Hence jockeys also develop relationships with owners.

A horse might have a single owner or be owned by a syndicate, and then owners might have numerous horses, in which case you might ride a few different horses for the owner/syndicate. Brad Rawiller has ridden a lot for trainer Darren Weir. Luke Nolen has ridden a lot for Peter Moody. Luke Nolen also became the jockey of Black Caviar, and when the owners of Black Caviar became involved in another horse they would have it trained by Peter Moody and ridden by Luke Nolen. So owners want to get to know the jockey and they want to know how their horse is going. They’re desperate to know the potential of their horse—everyone’s trying to win the Melbourne Cup or one of the big races.

You build real friendships with trainers and owners, which means chatting to them on the phone is a very natural thing to do. It just takes time, and the closer you become to them the more likely they are to ring.

At trackwork a jockey might ride half a dozen (often more) horses, and the work might be all over by 7.

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