In times past it seemed great to have your own retained jockey. We seen it in Ireland for years; the owners would show their power and money by paying huge sums of money to a particular jockey to ride their horse; while more often than not leaving a jockey of higher class in the weigh room.

While most Irish Jockeys jump or flat are more than adequate, this counts for nothing when you come to the big meetings. It boils down to two simple questions;  Does the trainer believe in the jockey and does the owner believe in his trainer. We see it so often, owners push their weight around and force trainers into decisions. Sometimes these work and some they don’t.

At the end of the day the public will give a fair summary of what jockeys are good enough and what ones aren’t. Ryan Moore and Ruby Walsh, while they have some critics can more often than not deliver under pressure and make very little mistakes. In the Irish flat scene at the moment we see Colin Keane; Pat Smullen and Declan McDonagh as top jockeys. If a trainers wants to win these jockeys increase the horses chances significantly.  Colin rides for a good stable in Ger Lyons, Pat rides for Weld and branched out this year in order to try and win the jockeys title as Weld’s horses were off form and lastly Declan rides for Oxx as well as many other trainers. Punters love to back winners and if a jockey means more winners, well so be it. That’s no different for owners who see these jockeys win day after day, they feel pressured to change in order to win as its a money game in the end.

Finally, I see a future for most yards of taking the best available jockey on hand, barring the exception of bigger establishments who may want a particular jockey. Who knows what pressures jockeys are under but i feel in this game it’s about to get worse and you really need to have good contacts built up to survive.