Jockeys and whip--A good Read
Last week, D Oliver won four races at the Golden Slipper card ( including the 2 big ones!). All of a sudden, Melbourne people have talked him up as the best in Australia. D Beadman, to defend his frame, fight back and makes certain comments:
I have found that the comments on S Dye was most interesting! For those who are not aware of that Golden Slipper, let me give a brief intro: Dye was on Encounter, a hot fav at the time and would-be a 3-year-Champ a year later got the GS surely won except at the last 20m , of which it veered out sharply. Dye could not keep it straight and D Beadman's mount fell in and beat it by a half-head or something. Beadman's mount was not considered of any quality, though. People have been saying that this GS was won on Jockey's skill. [ The Golden Slipper is now worth 3.5 million AUD in prize money and the winner could worth more than 20 millions in stud value!!)
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................Yet so many champions were one-handed jockeys. Mick Dittman, the Enforcer, perhaps the strongest jockey of our time in a close finish, wasn't a leftie. "He was more shoulders," Beadman pointed out." It wasn't that he hit them that hard. He lifted them. He could hit them as good as anyone but he lifted more than anyone, too. He had a lot more upper-body movement in his style."
Craig Williams? "He's a bitzer," Beadman explained. "Through his international travel, he has adapted English, American, Japanese, South African and Australian [styles]. Even the way he pulls the whip, he's got that sort of American style. In saying that, look at his body weight; it's always in the right position. He doesn't have any weight problems. You find that jockeys with weight problems tend to struggle to get their style right. Craig is very effective because he is strong and light."
And so is Shane Dye? "He rides probably shorter [in the irons] than anyone I know. He gets up over the horse's shoulder. He could only use the whip in one hand, though, that's why I won the [1997] Golden Slipper on Guineas and he was beaten on Encounter."
What about Darren Beadman? "I change my style all the time, depending on the horse," he said. "Sometimes I carry the whip right-handed but I always carry it left-handed in trackwork and trials and keep working at it. The boss [his tutor Theo Green] always had us walking around the stable with the stick in the left hand, just getting accustomed to it."
Styles, as with Williams and Ollie to some extent, have taken on overseas trends, but trainer Bart Cummings doesn't feel modern jockeys are better for it. "Oliver, though, brought back putting the whip away over the latter stages and pushing [with his hands] to get a better result," he said. "I don't mind that, but present-day jockeys aren't as good as [jockeys once were]. Every jockey should be able to use the whip in both hands.
"These blokes ride too short and don't have the control. Lester Piggott rode short, was a big bloke and hit at the butt of the tail. These blokes hit on the flank and horses run sideways."
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