Category: Jockey News
05-12-2011
Many thanks to everyone who came along and supported Isabel Tompsett and Richard Hawkins at the AJA Champions Dance on Saturday. It was wonderful to see such a great turnout and especially to have both Isabel and Richard with us – something beyond our wildest hopes not so long ago. A great mix of both the amateur and professional ranks were there to support our two injured jockeys who both continue to astonish us by continuing from strength to strength on their roads to recovery.
Isabel Tompsett greeted by Jonjo O’Neill
Richard Hawkins (centre) joined the celebrations
The incomparable Luke Harvey excelled as compere
Chris Martin, All-Weather Amateur Champion 2010/11, receives his cup and trophy from Mick Fitzgerald
Ryan Mahon, NH Amateur Champion 2010/11, receives his cup & trophy from Jonjo O’Neill
Gina Andrews, NH Lady Amateur Champion 2010/11 receives her trophy & cup from Andrew Tinkler who was able to attend the event being out of action with a broken hand. (Gina is of course also reigning Lady Point-to-Point National Champion.)
Robert Williams, Flat Amateur Champion 2011, presented with his prizes by AJA director & Ludlow supremo Bob Davies
Serena Brotherton, for the 5th time (& 3rd successive) Flat Champion Amateur Lady Jockey, presented with her cup and trophy by Carl Llewellyn
Carol Bartley received her runner up trophy from Aiden Coleman for the Flat Lady Championship 2011. (This was Carol’s first outing since breaking both arms and she is still unable to straighten her right arm.)
Emma Sayer received her Weatherbys Flat Ride of the Year award from AJA president Dr Phil Pritchard. Sadly Sam Waley-Cohen was unable to attend to accept his equivalent NH award for his win on Long Run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup 2011.
Sarah Oliver hands over one of the raffle prizes to past triple winning Champion Flat lady jockey Sarah Bosley whose husband Martin assisted with the auction.
Photo credit: AJA/Mike Charity
21-11-2011
Folkestone Racecourse are once again kindly staging an amateur riders’ hurdle to celebrate Pompadour Day and strengthen ties with Pompadour Racecourse in France. Last year this race was lost to the snow when the runners were actually down at the start in a blizzard!
12 jockeys have been invited to ride in the race and we hope that trainers will be able to support the race by providing runners. Riders will be drawn by ballot by Weatherbys on Sunday morning. We have a rich talent of amateur jockeys in Great Britain and this type of race is a great way to showcase them and help them build up experience before some of them turn professional, as has recently happened in the case of both Harry Derham and Jack Quinlan.
THE HYTHE AMATEUR RIDERS HANDICAP HURDLE
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1
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Mark O’Hare
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Mark has ridden 17 winners under rules as well as 146 point-to-point winners.
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2
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Cyril Coste
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Cyril won this race at Folkestone in 2008 and has had 17 jump wins as well as 4 flat wins.
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3
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Robbie Henderson
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Robbie is attached to Alan King’s yard and has had 11 winners under rules as well as 17 point-to-point wins.
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4
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Patrick Paihes
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Patrick has ridden 92 winners under rules as well as 35 wins on the flat.
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5
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James Ridley
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James has had 3 winners under rules and 10 point-to-point wins.
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6
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Mikey Ennis
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Mike is attached to David Pipe’s yard and has ridden 6 winners under rules and 17 point-to-point winners.
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7
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Phil York
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Phil is a Folkestone specialist and has ridden 24 winners under rules and 203 point-to-point winners.
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8
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Nick Slatter
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Nick has ridden 1 winner under rules and 16 point-to-point winners.
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9
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Tom Bellamy
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Fresh from his win at Cheltenham recently, Tom has ridden 3 winners under rules and 5 point-to-point wins.
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10
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Oliver Murphy
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Oliver has ridden 5 winners under rules including 2 recently and also 13 point-to-point winners.
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11
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Philip Prince
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Philip has ridden 3 winners under rules and 8 point-to-point winners.
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12
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Ben Poste
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Ben has ridden 5 winners under rules and 12 point-to-point winners.
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07-11-2011
www.skysports.com
A MUST SEE – 405 @ 7:30 SAM WALEY-COHEN & LONG RUN SPECIAL REPORT
Sky Sports | Sport News
www.skysports.com
DON’T MISS IT!
use this link for trailer: http://bcove.me/j0uzieb2
04-11-2011
This year the AJA Champions Cheltenham Christmas Dinner Dance will be dedicated to raising funds for both ISABEL TOMPSETTand RICHARD HAWKINS who continue to recover from serious head injuries sustained earlier this year.
The AJA request the pleasure of your company
Champions Christmas Dance for Isabel & Richard
Saturday 3rd December 2011
CHELTENHAM RACECOURSE GOLD CUP SUITE
BLACK TIE * 7:30-1:30 * MUSIC & DANCING
tickets @ £50 each include 3-course dinner
top class raffle & auction
Amateur Champions Awards
TICKET HOTLINE: 01886 884488 or 01933 304778
Tables of 10 available
Cheques payable to AJA can be posted to
Crews Hill House, Alfrick, Worcester. WR6 5HF
HUNTER’S LODGE HOTEL
STABLE LADS ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE AT CHELTENHAM RACECOURSE WALKING DISTANCE FROM GOLD CUP SUITE!
CURRENT TARIFF
- Single room, B & B £24
- Twin room B & B £44
- Triple room B & B £60
- Quad room B & B £66
For more details and reservations, please call 01242 513345 or 500822
17-10-2011
Very many congratulations to Nico de Boinville who has achieved 3rd place in the men’s Fegentri World Championship following the final race of the season hosted by Switzerland in Maienfeld yesterday.
This was a considerable achievement with very limited invitations this season and Nico was an excellent diplomat for British racing, carrying out his ambassadorial role with aplomb.
06-10-2011
THE BHA REVIEW ON USE OF THE WHIP COMES INTO EFFECT ON MONDAY NEXT 10TH OCTOBER!
- 5 hits in the final furlong/after the last obstacle are the maximum number of hits that are acceptable.
- 7 hits (flat) 8 hits (jump) in the whole race are the maximum number of hits that are acceptable.
- Excessive frequency – minimum suspension of 5 days for 1 hit over the permitted maximum and a further 2 days for every hit thereafter.
- Penalties for other breaches of Schedule (B)6 part 2 have been increased.
- Repeat offences will result in at least a doubling of the suspension.
- Group 1 and Grade 1 exemptions will not apply to whip offences.
- Every time a rider’s whip makes contact with his horse with his whip hand off the reins will be considered as a hit regardless of how, where or with what force the whip is used.
- Any offence which warrants a suspension of more than 20 days before previous offences are taken into account will be referred.
- Any offence which warrants a suspension of 42 days having taken previous offences into account will be referred.
- Penalties imposed by the Disciplinary Panel have been increased considerably.
The full BHA review of the use of the whip can be viewed by this link: http://www.britishhorseracing.com/whip-review/WhipReview.pdf
24-09-2011
Many congratulations to Oliver Garner who has been awarded the Tom Halliday scholarship for 2011.
The Tom Halliday Award was set up by Market Rasen Racecourse in 2005 following the tragic death of conditional Tom Halliday. The award was designed to help young and up and coming conditional jockeys and this is the first time that it has been awarded to an amateur jockey. The award offers a promising young jockey support in a number of ways including sponsorship, coaching, media training and access to other areas of advice to support his or her career.
The racecourse works closely with partners such as The Northern Racing College to provide the scholar with necessary courses and advice for their future career. Past winners have been:
2005 Phil Kinsella
2006 Michael O’Connell
2007 David Culinane
2008 James Halliday
2009 Oliver Williams
2010 Joe Cornwall
Pip Kirkby, Market Rasen’s MD, said “This award means a lot to those who receive it and we very much intend to include the views of senior jockey Dominic Elsworth, a long time friend of the Halliday family, as well as James Halliday in making the decision as to who should be the next scholar.
Photo credit: AJA
18-09-2011
This year the AJA Champions Cheltenham Christmas Dinner Dance will be dedicated to raising funds for both ISABEL TOMPSETT and RICHARD HAWKINS who continue to recover from serious head injuries sustained earlier this year.
The AJA request the pleasure of your company
Champions Christmas Dance for Isabel & Richard
Saturday 3rd December 2011
CHELTENHAM RACECOURSE GOLD CUP SUITE
BLACK TIE * 7:30-1:30 * MUSIC & DANCING
tickets @ £50 each include 3-course dinner
top class raffle & auction
Amateur Champions Awards
TICKET HOTLINE: 01886 884488 or 01933 304778
Tables of 10 available
Cheques payable to AJA can be posted to
Crews Hill House, Alfrick, Worcester. WR6 5HF
13-09-2011
The Injured Jockeys Fund has purchased an Equichute thanks to the Alborada Trust. John Francome believes it is vital to the training of jockeys. “There is no doubt that it will save lives and no end of injuries. If it stops one person a year from ending up in a wheelchair, then it has paid for itself ten times over.”
The equipment at The British Racing School is to be used in conjunction with training. The machine, the first of its type in Britain, works on compressed air and therefore speed and severity of the fall can be regulated. Integrated into the Course Programme is a series of sessions looking at the technique to minimise injury. The sessions will be taken by Jon Pitts and Steve Smith Eccles.
Spaces are available for the next training course on Tuesday October 11th. The course includes an introduction and briefing, technique practical session and technology to analyse falls from the Equichute and costs £75. For further information and/or to book your place please contact Clare Higgins on 01638 665103 or 675907 or e-mail clare@brs.org.uk.
12-09-2011
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has today announced it will share the benefits of the income it generates from amateur jockeys riding against professionals with the Amateur Jockeys Association for the very first time. Whilst the BHA already supports amateur jockeys through a contribution towards the provision of insurance and funds industry training and on-course physiotherapists – totalling in excess of £450,000 over the past four years – a major proportion of future prize money and riding fees earned by amateur jockeys will now be shared with the AJA.
In addition, the outstanding achievements of Sam Waley-Cohen in becoming the first amateur jockey in 30 years to win the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup and finishing second in the John Smith’s Grand National in 2011, have enabled the BHA to provide a further £30,000 grant to be divided between the AJA, the Pony Racing Authority (PRA) and to Sam’s newly-founded charity, the Thomas Andrew Waley-Cohen (TAWC) Fund, which is aimed at providing financial support for charitable initiatives across the country.
£20,000 of this grant has been allocated to the AJA towards funding for a small number of valuable Jump races for amateur riders, which will be planned in consultation with BHA Racing Department and the racecourses concerned, with the hope of building a stronger platform from which amateur jockeys can launch their riding careers.
Sam said: “I am delighted that the BHA has revised the current system so that in future a percentage of amateurs’ prize money from wins against professionals will be awarded to the Amateur Jockeys Association. This will undoubtedly benefit all amateur riders, and represents a significant step forward for the sport. It is also rewarding for me personally that the memorable season I was fortunate enough to enjoy in 2010/11 will benefit the AJA, PRA and my own charity, the TAWC Fund. I am excited to see what developments can arise as a result of these grants, including the prospect of additional races for amateurs, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to put something back into a sport which has given me so much, and perhaps in doing so help all amateur jockeys to continue their fine contribution to the sport.“
Sarah Oliver, Chief Executive of the AJA, said: “Following the recent hugely successful partnerships of Sam Waley-Cohen with Long Run and Oscar Time, the AJA are delighted that agreement has been reached with the BHA so that amateur jockeys will benefit from future winning rides against professionals. Not only will a fund from Sam Waley-Cohen’s wins last season finance additional amateur races, future amateur jockeys’ winning ride percentage prize money against professionals will also be included. The AJA acknowledges the significant contribution made by all amateur jockeys who has won against professionals in the past.”
