Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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Author: search.filters.author.Gee ESubject: search.filters.subject.thoroughbred racing

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    Jockey Career Length and Risk Factors for Loss from Thoroughbred Race Riding
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2020-09-10) Legg K; Cochrane D; Gee E; Rogers C
    Professional thoroughbred racing jockeys repeatedly work close to physiological capacity during races, whilst maintaining low body weights, on a daily basis with no off-season. The effects of this on their career length is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the career lengths and reasons for loss from the industry of 674 jockeys and apprentices who rode over 14 racing seasons and 421,596 race day starts in New Zealand. Descriptors were compared between jockeys in short (1–2 years), middle (3–9 years) and long (>10 years) career cohorts with descriptive statistics and Kaplan–Meier survival curves. The median career length for jockeys was 2 years (IQR 1–6). Long career cohort jockeys (11%) had lower carried weights (IQR 56–57 kg, p = 0.03), 40 times the median number of rides per season (248, IQR 61–434, p < 0.001), half the rate per 1000 rides of falling (1.1, 95% CI 1.0–1.2, p = 0.009) and 1.3 times the rate of winning (100, 95% CI 99–101, p < 0.01) than jockeys in the short career cohort. Jockeys who rode over 200 races per season had careers three times longer than jockeys with fewer races per season (p < 0.001). Half of the 40% of jockeys who failed to complete their apprenticeship were lost from the industry in their first year of race riding. In conclusion, most jockeys had short careers where the workload of a jockey and their ability to obtain rides had greater impact on career longevity than their performance.
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    The external workload of thoroughbred horse racing jockeys
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2020-09-14) Legg K; Cochrane D; Gee E; Rogers C
    The objectives of this study were to quantify the external workload of thoroughbred racing jockeys in relation to their experience and racing performance. The number of rides of 786 jockeys and apprentices who rode in 407,948 flat and 13,648 jumps racing starts over 14 seasons were examined. Jockey work (ride numbers, seasons riding) and performance characteristics (race falls or wins) between cohorts with low (1-10), middle (10-200) and high (>200) numbers of rides per season were compared. Flat racing apprentices had more rides per season (25, interquartile range [IQR] 7-97 vs. 14, IQR 3-222, p < 0.001) but fewer rides per race day (2, IQR 1-4 vs. 4, IQR 2-6, p < 0.001) than flat racing jockeys. Flat racing jockeys in the high workload cohort (23%) were responsible for 83% of the race-day rides, riding in a median of 375 (IQR 283-520) races per season. These jockeys had half the fall rate (Incidence rate [IR] 1.0, 95% CI 0.9-1.1) and 1.4 times the success rates per 1000 rides (IR 98, 95% CI 97-99) than jockeys in the low and middle workload cohorts (p < 0.05). Most jockeys had light workloads, greater risk of injury and lower winning rates than the smaller cohort of jockeys with heavier workloads. This disparity in opportunity and success between cohorts indicates inefficiencies within the industry in recruitment and retention of jockeys. These data provide a foundation to further studies investigating jockey competition-specific fitness and its effect on both riding success and reducing injury risk.