When Sky Channel personnel do interviews for upcoming races, why do they interview the same people all of the time?

It is my considered opinion that the launching of new Sky Channel channels of 520 and 521 can do something positive to give valuable exposure to the lesser known people in the racing game.

Sky Channel’s main channel, 519, has for many years done trackside interviews with trainers and jockeys on race days. To that end, we see many of the same old faces week in, week out. Trainers like the Gai Waterhouse’s of the world, have been regular Saturday afternoon guests for years, however it is my considered opinion that if you took their advice on which horses to back from their stables, that you’d probably finish up living somewhere along the revered Skid Row, which just happens to be around the corner from Bankrupt Boulevard and Loser’s Lane.

When “champion”, “top,” or “leading” jockeys are interviewed, I also cringe, as they are all so positive that it defies belief. They’d actually be worse judges than the trainers – if that is in fact possible. I admit to screaming into a pillow when I listen to an interview and the trainer passes on such “scoop” information as the horse has “improved four lengths since his last start win.” What then is the sense in running the race? The rest of the field may as well have stayed home in the box, accompanied by their beloved pine shavings, as it is surely an exercise in futility going to the races if this last start winning equine athlete has actually “improved four lengths” subsequently.

Unfortunately most of the positive crap that is spoken by trainers and jockeys is generally proven to be exactly that – crap – which begs the question “Does anyone from within the realms of the viewing audience actually take any notice of what is said”?

Obviously all the warm and fuzzy Saturday afternoon interviews are conducted with high profile, well-known personalities, with the primary purpose being to inflate the TAB holds on the upcoming race, as Tabcorp owns Sky Channel, so they would obviously have a vested interest in boosting TAB turnover.

So in essence, I have no objection to persons in the media helping to boost TAB turnover, for it is the lifeblood of the industry, as long as there is some sort of fairness in what is happening – and by “fairness”, I mean that as many trainers and jockeys as possible are getting a go at being interviewed.

If the interviewer is not simply trying to artificially bolster TAB turnover by interviewing the jockey of the 6/4 ($2.50) favourite in the next race, then why doesn’t that interviewer do something constructive for the industry at large and grab a three-kilo apprentice out of the jockeys room and find out some details of who they are apprenticed to, what weight they can ride at, and how many winners they have ridden to date in their career - and so on?

That latter point arose in my small mind when I attended part of the TAB meetings that were being broadcast out of Toowoomba last Thursday and Ipswich last Friday. At Toowoomba no Sky Channel interviews were conducted but at Ipswich last Friday, despite a list about a furlong long, of apprentices riding at the meeting, it seemed to me that the same old, same old, jockeys were getting interviewed. To me that is wrong when we are having a “provincial” class meeting. Why not give the kids, or the lesser known senior jockeys a go for a change? To the best of my knowledge, the centre of the universe does not exist around about five high profile jockeys.

What a great platform that “provincial” meeting presents to find out something about the hopeful and fresh faces in the jockeys room. Or for that matter what’s wrong with getting a 55YO jockey in front of the microphone and not only asking his thoughts on his rides on the day , but also inquiring into something different, maybe like his career highlights, which someone might find “interesting”. We don’t want to hear garbage like “Radish has improved four lengths” - when in actual fact the horse proves later in the day that he’s in fact lost a leg somewhere since his last run.

Why does the world have to revolve around about five or six high profile jockeys? Put simply, it shouldn’t, as these same “high profile” people are the ones getting beaten on the short priced favourites that they are tipping to the hapless public in their interviews. If the public is going to back a loser as the result of listening to an interview, they may as well back a 50/1 loser than a 6/4 loser, as they won’t have had to have as much dough on the 50/1 shot – and in the end the jockey on the 50/1 shot will at least introduce a new face to the Sky Channel viewer, who has unfortunately never set eyes on that particular jockey, because they weren’t “high profile.”

So what I’ve done today to prove my point on my www.brisbaneracing.com.au website is I’ve put up the photos of 20 jockeys who rode at TAB meetings last Thursday at Toowoomba, or at Ipswich last Friday. I have not put names next to any of them today to allow trainers, owners and the general public to see just how little they know about the identity of jockeys that are riding at our South East Queensland TAB tracks. I would estimate that most people will not be able to recognise more than five of the 20 jockeys – and that’s with me throwing in a couple of easy ones to help the identification process of those five.

Then tomorrow on the www.brisbaneracing.com.au website I will reveal the names of the said 20 jockeys - and a few facts about each of them - in an endeavour to lift their profile. I truly believe that Sky Channel “provincial” interviews present the perfect forum to showcase some of these jockeys who sadly never get interviewed, simply because they aren’t riding the favourite in the next.

Let me share with you something that I’ve learned after over four decades of following thoroughbreds - and that is that “most favourites don’t win” anyway, so if that is the case, surely it’s not essential to interview people connected with the favourite before each race?