Cliff Williams
"IN MY years of interacting with jockeys, I have tried, with little success, to convince them that they too are members of a profession."
The foregoing is an extract from the speech given by Jeffrey Mordecai, attorney-at-law, in his capacity as guest speaker at the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) Jockeys' Training School Graduation Exercise held last Tuesday at its Winchester Road grounds.
Perhaps at this point it may be useful to know what Mr. Mordecai deems as the best definition of a profession and it is as follows: "The body
of qualified persons in
an occupation or field
that requires considerable training, specialised study and restricts, regulates and sanctions its members."
Interestingly, the guest speaker also touched on some of what a practitioner in a profession is expected
to deliver in terms of
a specialised service based on knowledge and skill, obligation to the general public to perform in the public interest and being bound by an ethical and behavioural code.
THE QUESTION
The question that arises at this point is whether or not what was presented by Mr. Mordecai accords with our experience of the attitude and general performance of the vast majority of our local riders.
This question cannot be answered definitively in the affirmative but there are mitigating circumstances that must be taken into account if one is to give a fair assessment.
Prior to 1990, before the establishment of the JRC Riding School, the licensing of jockeys was never handled in a structured way and there was an apprenticeship system conducted by individual trainers.
These trainers would be responsible for preparing the boys and success in a limited test of literacy and demon-strable ability to handle horses ensured that an apprentice license to ride in public could be secured.
Surprisingly, this method of making jockeys produced some of the finest riders in the history of the local version of the sport of kings. One of the major problems of the day then was that many of the riders started so young that they were quite small, but by the time they got into their late teens and grew to full height a profession as a jockey was out of the question.
PHYSICAL GROWTH
No such problem exists today because the JRC only accepts candidates at the age of majority whose physical growth would have been completed.
There was a time about a decade or so ago when there were about 130 persons licensed as jockeys. I clearly remember writing how bizarre this situation was given the fact that there were only about a thousand horses in training and less than two dozen races conducted on a weekly basis.
I have not had a chance to check, but I think there is only a little more than half that number of practitioners around these days.
Obviously being a success-ful professional in this type of scenario is a very difficult proposition, but a few have succeeded brilliantly.
I will be returning to this subject in my next column and looking at what the future is likely to hold for the 15 aspirants in the 2006 graduation exercise.
