N.Z. JOCKEYS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 5, 1 October 1935, Page 15

N.Z. JOCKEYS

Australian Criticism

TINKER LATEST VICTIM

One of the best-known aud best-liked of all New Zealand racing men who frequently visit Australia is J. M. Cameron, says the Melbourne writer “Caid’gan.” He is here again with Gold Trail, and intends taking that mare to Melbourne, Cameron asked me in Sydney the other day why so many New Zealand jockeys fail to do well jn Australia, to which I replied rather off-handedly, "Because they cannot ride.” "No,” he said, “it’s not that, but I have been puzzling my brain to try to work out why really good horsemen at Lome come to Australia and ride like fifth-rate apprentices.” a tew examples, and then went on to refer to tbe criticism to which A. Tinker, tbe rider of Gay Blonde, received for his display ou that mare in the Tramway Handicap at Randwick, aud on Silver Jubilee nt Rosebery. “Tinker,” said Cameron, ">s one of the best riders I have seen in the Dominion for years. He has brains aud anility, and there are many people who have been going to races for years who declare that he is almost us good a rider as Hector Gray. Yet when be comes to Sydney he does not show his best form. He is criticised and probably tbe criticism makes him ride even worse tbe next time.” . i . Considering the number of jockeys wuo visit Australia from New Zealand with excellent home reputations, there are few who do well. Gray, of course, could ride well anywhere, as on a horse he had a superioritv complex. Voitre is "much the game, being unaffected by place or conditions, and McCarten is' the same, although when he first came to Australia .he did not show his best form, and for some time was dubbed as “just a rider.” But he had the courage and the ability to cast the complex from him, and nowadays there is lip better-liked jockey riding, than Maurice McCarten. I can recall numerous other New Zealand riders who always shaped badly in Sydney and little better in Melbourne. They pot only failed to do anything right, but also appeared to have the unhappy knack of doing the wrong thing, which not only lost them many valuable races, but caused investors to declare that they would never again support a horse ridden by a New Zealand jockey. It is to be hoped for the sake of Gay Blonde’s admirers that Tinker recovers hi s best form before the Epsom.. Riding in those sort of races counts a great deal, and more than one rich coup has been lost as the result of poor jockeyship.