Racing has ‘so far to go’ in dealing with jockeys’ mental health

Hong Kong racing fans got a first-hand look at the mental pressures faced by jockeys during the Covid-19 pandemic and star Australian rider Glen Boss believes racing has “so far to go” in dealing with the issue.

Vincent Ho Chak-yiu and Joao Moreira are two Hong Kong jockeys who spoke publicly about their struggles, with Ho saying during the worst of the pandemic “this Covid isolation doesn’t do me any good, mentally it isn’t good at all and my mind needs a break”.

Moreira was vocal in his calls for the Jockey Club to improve its mental health approach in 2021, and he outlined his struggles while he was alone in Hong Kong during his recovery from injury last year, with the Brazilian returning home and eventually handing in his licence.

“We’re still trying to navigate through a foggy place at the moment. We have got so far to go, speaking about it, getting it out there, getting governments involved,” Boss told the Asian Racing Conference in Melbourne on Thursday.

Jockey Club executive director of racing Andrew Harding believes the mental health of riders is an issue racing needs to get better at dealing with.

“It’s an issue racing needs to acknowledge, needs to deal with, and I’m pleased to say is starting to do so,” Harding said.

“Racing faces a number of challenges and this is one of them because it’s a high-pressure, intense environment. In many of our jurisdictions it’s a 7-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year calling and that pressure is immense for its participants, and perhaps for none more so than the jockey.

“The jockey experiences not just that pressure of the relentless nature of our sport but they’re also weighted with the expectations – the horse carries the weight the handicapper has given them, the jockey is carrying the expectations of the owner, the trainer and the punter.

“On top of all that, they almost uniquely – in terms of athletes – know when they go out there, in a split second something could happen that could alter their life and the lives of others forever.”

Harding praised the role prominent athletes have played in removing some of “the stigma that historically, and perhaps even now, is in some countries and some societies associated with mental health”.

Boss is one such athlete, with the 53-year-old speaking openly in recent times about the “dark place” his struggles took him, and he emphasised the enormity of the expectation put on jockeys.

“It’s all of it – the expectations on athletes today, it’s relentless [and] we’re encouraging eating disorders in our industry,” Boss said. “You’re supposed to be highly tuned athletes who are supposed to get on these amazing animals and we are supposed to perform at this amazing level, but we’ve simply got nothing in us.

“There’s all that with the malnutrition, the pressure to perform – if I don’t perform am I going to lose that mount? – and then you’ve got the social media. It plays a big part.”

Harding, who is also the secretary general of the Asian Racing Federation, spelled out what the sport can do to continue the mental health “revolution”.

“There are at least five things we need to do. One is to continue to remove that stigma that can be associated with acknowledging we have an issue with our mental health,” he said.

“Another is to provide access to services. A third is to improve the services that are provided, and another, of course, is to make it lifelong.

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“Finally, it’s to recognise it can’t be compartmentalised – mental health cannot be put into buckets in terms of what we provide to jockeys, in terms of the skills we equip them with to deal with these issues both in their personal life and their professional life and where those two things meet.”

Earlier on Thursday, star Kiwi trainer Chris Waller spoke about the lure of heading abroad with his wonder mare Winx, who won four Cox Plates among 33 consecutive victories to finish her career.

Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has talked this week about how unlikely he thinks it is Hong Kong hero Golden Sixty will travel – citing the seven-year-old’s nervous energy – and Waller’s words would not have provided confidence for those hoping the two-time Horse of the Year chases overseas riches.

“I doubt she would have kept winning, so I think we made the right decision,” Waller admitted about his decision to stay at home with Winx.

Meanwhile, the jockey synonymous with Winx – Hugh Bowman – will travel to Sydney to ride In Secret and Mo’unga at Randwick on February 25 before returning to ride in the Hong Kong Gold Cup-Classic Cup meeting at Sha Tin on February 26.

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