Mike Gibson on Racing in Today's Telegraph.

[Mythor]

This isn't comedy related, so if comedy is what you're after, go elsewhere... The reason I'm posting this should become obvious, though.

Mike Gibson, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Wednesday January 29, 2003.

For its colour, no sport is as cruel as racing.

It was an image that will live forever in the memories of millions of Australians.
Damien Oliver raising his eyes to the heavens and waving his whip, after he'd won the Melbourne cup on Media Puzzle.
How bittersweet it was.
As Damien said, the exhilaration of winning a Melbourne Cup meant nothing compared with the devastation he felt at the loss of his brother Jason, fatally injured in a barrier trial the week before.
It has been a summer of horror for our jockeys.
Seventeen days ago, rider Mark Goring suffered shocking head injuries in a three-horse fall at Tatura, in Victoria.
Goring was 22. He never regained consciousness. He left a pregnant wife and a young child.
Now -- again in Victoria -- another jockey, Lonagan Milham, is fighting for his life. The 20-year-old apprentice sustained severe head and internal injuries on Monday when he went crashing to the turf and another horse galloped on top of him at Hanging Rock.
I have often written about the admiration I have for these little men -- and women -- who risk life and limb on the racetrack.
Seven days a week now, there they are climbing aboard wild big thoroughbreds, hoping to ride that elusive winner that will pay the bills.
While we are constantly regaled with success stories of the likes of Darren Beadman and Corey Brown, we seldom hear about the majority of jockeys who struggle to make a living in the most hazardous game of them all.
Then there are those who never make it. Those who begin their working lives getting up in the dark and mucking out the stables. Those whose first winner at a meeting out in the bush was also their last.
Those who wind up working in a factory or pushing a cab, and telling you what might have beem.
Often it was lack of ability. In many cases, too much weight. Ask Justin Sheehan, one of our most talented horsemen, whose life is a constant nightmare as he battles the scales.
How many jockeys suffer in silence, sweating those hours out in the sauna, eating next to nothing as they pump themselves with diuretics?
Fred Archer was one of England's most famous riders. After years of starving himself to make weight, he became so depressed that he took a gun and blew his brains out.
For all its colour and romance, no sport is more cruel than racing.
Listen to those punters who line the fence giving a gobful to the jockey on a beaten favourite.
While none of them would have the guts to go for that needle-eye opening that could cost a rider his life or put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his days, you can always find them screaming from out of their pockets.
Even the stewards show little sympathy. Today they will ask Beadman and Rod Quinn to explain why the slowed their mounts to check on fallen colleague Corey Brown, who was hurled to the ground after his horse was forced through the running rail at Randwick on Monday.
The years of wasting take a savage toll. Have a look at the faces of some of our jockeys. Pinched and wizened. Men whose bodies are so ravaged that they have grown old before their time.
As another young man lies in intensive care with his life in the balance, spare a thought for our jockeys who go out there each day pushing themselves -- and their luck -- to the limit, in a sport that has no beg pardons.
They aren't just names in a form guide, you know.
These are gutsy little blokes. Flesh and blood. In many cases, sadly not enough flesh.
I take off my hat to them.
Anyone who says they're not brave should get out there, throw a leg over, and have a go.

-- End. --
Any dodgy spelling, grammar or sentence structure is that of Mike Gibson and the Telegraph editors.

For the first time in a while I've decided to send a letter to the Telegraph about this piece, it reads as follows:

To whom it may concern,

Mike Gibson is a pathetic excuse for a human being.
Oh, boo-hoo, jockeys have such a hard life. Minor starvation, regular sauna visits and the possibility of falling off a horse while riding it for five minutes.
At least the jockeys have a choice. When was the last time a horse was asked if it wanted to be whipped mercilessly to run as fast as possible in a circle for the entertainment of humans?
When was the last time a jockey received a bullet in the head for breaking a leg?

Regards,
...... my details here .......

-- End.

It just outraged me that here was someone bemoaning the horrific life that jockeys choose without even making the slightest mention of the treatment given to the real hard workers in racing - the horses.
I'm not even that big of an animal rights person ordinarily. They're not human and don't have the same level of intelligence and understanding we do.
But even so, the horses are forced into the cruelty of racing, whereas the jockeys go into it because they want to.

Just really, really annoyed about it. So I wrote a letter. Woo. Go me.

[Fiona Rohana]

yayy myth *waves a flag and jumps up and down with pom poms*

sorry, i havent actually got anything useful to add. i'm just in a weird mood.

[ryttu3k]

Heckling the telegraph is always fun... I gave them a pissy phonecall cos they referred to Wil as an 'alleged funnyman' yesterday...

[Sam]

Good on you for being bothered. There would be heaps more who would have thought what you said. Surely jockeys become involved initially for their love of horses (ironic isn't it?) and probably their love of the sport. Their dream might be to win, but it can't be the only reason they dedicate their life to it. Mind you Gibson has fulfilled his journalistic job by putting something out one eyed that can be discussed by the regular populace.

[credence]

I don't see anything wrong with his article personally. It's just a point of view - and it's the truth. He just didn't mention the horses. The article wasn't about them, it was about Jockeys in their defence. What's wrong with showing sympathy for your fellow human? I don't think this article makes 'Gibbo' pathetic.

[Mythor]

There's nothing wrong with having sympathy for fellow humans, but he didn't make any mention of what horses go through anywhere in the article. About the only reference to them is as "wild big thoroughbreds."
It came off sounding like he doesn't give a second thought to the animals, only the humans...

BTW, for anyone wondering, my letter hasn't been published.

Originally Posted by Mythor

There's nothing wrong with having sympathy for fellow humans, but he didn't make any mention of what horses go through anywhere in the article. About the only reference to them is as "wild big thoroughbreds."
It came off sounding like he doesn't give a second thought to the animals, only the humans...

BTW, for anyone wondering, my letter hasn't been published.

Myth, you didn't make any mention of the children of punters who go without because mummy or daddy have been at the race track, so what does that make you? Gambling is a huge problem for families and individuals in this country. Mike Gibson was making one point that needed to be made, that no self respecting person wouldn't make and yet the two jockeys in question are still brought to task about slowing down. I saw the footage of the race and well you really couldn't tell they had slowed down in anycase.

Good on you for caring but in this case I really don't think that he is as pathetic as you say.