Forging a successful career as a professional jockey is not dissimilar to the effort required to make it as an actor. You have to keep your name in the public eye and you are only as good as your last performance. Very few in either profession can afford to rest on past glories.
Just like the silver screen actresses who were under contract to a specific studio for a number of films, so the best situation for a jockey is to be retained by a high-profile stable to ride all of its big race runners.
Jockey Jamie Spencer, for example, is currently retained by Qatar Racing and in the past has been stable jockey for Aidan O’Brien (Ballydoyle) and a retained jockey for owner Mrs Fitri Hay.
For those jockeys not lucky enough to have a retainer, it is often a case of using an agent to ring trainers to persuade them to put their client on the trainer’s horses*. The agent’s job is made that much easier if they can point to some recent winners or good placed rides that their client has had.
It can be a fine line between making a living as a jockey and dropping out of the limelight and seeing the number of rides dry up. The BHA states there are 463 professional jockeys in the UK (2012) and the average salary (before expenses like travel costs) is GB£35,000. It is a competitive world.
Against this background, one hopes that Hayley Turner does not drop off the radar after her recent injury (broken ankle) which will keep her out of action for 6-7 weeks. The injury comes shortly after she split from trainer Michael Bell, who gave her 157 rides in 2012 and more than 650 in the last five seasons. It is likely she will miss Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Day at Ascot in early August too, a high-profile, televised meeting.
The combination of recent events, one on top of each other, means their impact is multiplied. Out of sight; out of mind.
But even past success is no guarantee of being able to forge a viable career. Turner shared the champion apprentice title with Saleem Golam in 2005 but since then he has not made the progress he would have wanted. In 2013 he has had a total of 48 rides and no winners so far (Turner 375 rides, 55 wins) and at the time of writing his three most recent rides finished 12/12, 4/6, and 7/7, beaten a total of 96 lengths at prices of 16/1, 150/1, and 100/1.
It is sometimes frustrating to see young apprentice jockeys interviewed on Channel 4 on Saturday afternoon. They’ve got a ride in a televised handicap race and the interviewer asks a general “tell me about yourself” question – it is a perfect free advert on national television to sell themselves and let trainers and owners know they exist. And yet, all too often, their answer is lacklustre and vague without any details as to what they’re good at, what they’re learning, and what they hope to do.
Actors get one pitch to sell themselves to casting agents. In the same way, young, ambitious jockeys should develop their own ‘paddock pitch’.
*although some jockeys, like the now retired Vince Slattery, save the agent’s commission by acting as their own agent. Speaking in an interview in 2002 Slattery explained: “I'm always on the phone chasing rides, it's just that there's not a lot around and there's always younger lads coming through. It's a matter of fashion, but I know I can do the job when I get the chance."
