DOMINION JOCKEYS.

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 19604, 9 January 1936, Page 3

DOMINION JOCKEYS.

FORM IN AUSTRALIA. SOME CANDID CRITICISM. New Zealand jockeys rarely show their best form in the saddle when they .first ride in Australia, and the result is that they are often subjected to strong criticism. Few people like criticism, and the New Zealanders are no exceptions, while the newspaper writers in the Dominion also take strong exception to the manner in which Australians declare that their riders are inferior in skill to the majority of our good riders.

At the spring meeting in Sydney ji New Zealand jockey, A. Tinker, who gave more than one inartistic exhibition on Silver Jubilee and Gay Blonde, came under the lire of the critics. Tinker did not win a race and he returned to New Zealand recently to immediately win races at the country fixture at Dargaville. Australia is without super-horse-men, unfortunately, but 1 am sure (writes ‘‘Cardigan” in the Melbourne •‘Herald’’) that riders of the calibre of Pike, Darby Munro, Skidmore, Dempsey, Shean and half a dozen others l could mention, could and would outride Tinker if given the opportunity. Tinker and Voitre. Tinker may be a good horseman in New Zealand, and when opposed to jockeys of moderate skill, but. the fact remains that he did not ride well when in Australia, and one exhibition i saw him give on Silver Jubilee at Rosebery (Sydney), when beaten by A. Knox on J' Accuse, caused a well-known New Zealand owner-trainer to express the opinion that jockeys from his own country must suffer from an inferiority complex. To say the least, his comment was kindly. Just because Voitre has swept the board in Melbourne in tlu 1 last few months does not say that the standard of riding in New Zealand is any better than it has been for a decade. Voitre is a good rider —of that there is little doubt —but he has been fortunate in securing first-class mounts. The writer said he had no doubt that any of the jockeys mentioned would have been just as successful as Voitre if they had ha 1 equal opportunities in the spring.

Ofoe must admire Voitre for his excellent physical condition, his keenness, his desire at all times to follow the pace, and his brains in adopting methods that are not iu the least stereotyped. He has oh tained good mounts and he ha,s made the best use of them, but one Yoitre does not mean that Tinker is a James Edward Pike.