Jockey Title restrictions unfair??

With the new season underway the question of wins outside our borders comes under the spotlight once again and it looks as though only winners in SA will count this season which I believe is very unfair and makes for a very predictable "2 horse race"...surely the object of this exercise is to reward the most successful SA based jockey and where the winners are achieved should not be a criteria, there is no doubt that the likes of Anthony Delpech and Anton Marcus have earned the right to be first choice riders for MDK and Marcus Jooste respectively through hard work and consistently good results but why should other jocks who don't have the backing of a big stable or owner not be afforded the opportunity of at least trying to be competitive by travelling to other centers where they can get rides that are on par with what the top 2 get on a regular basis on home soil?
When the Springboks or Proteas travel abroad and win games they do so under the SA banner and are credited for the win, so why should it be any different in the jock title race.. there is no doubt that if Anton or Anthony choose to go to Zim they will also be very well supported, however they do not do so as there is no need to with such a strong home base which will see them fight out the title year in and year out...
Level the playing fields and give everyone a realistic chance of challenging for the title...

Titch, I feel the change is the correct call.

Really curious to know who, or whom, makes this call. Anyone know?

Well we can be sure it was not Titch.

Would guess the NHRA?

Didn't Derreck David win the apprentice championship through his rides in Zim? (those rides contributed greatly to his win). It was close between him and Karis Teetan if I recall correctly.

The question has to be; why was this not scrutinised back then?

Nhra keep the statistics, be it wins or stakes, provinces or national. They don't do arbitrary competitions. Maybe the awards committee, or if Klawervlei say they only going to pay for local wins they might swing the competition. Till now these titles are based on precedent and convention.

Apparently in the 50's, some bloke won the championship by cleaning up in Bloemfontein, but the title wasn't awarded to him as the powerbrokers of the time decided it wasn't the right outcome. Minor centre figurers was dropped for that year. I paged through the calendar for the period but the record just shows the normal chaps like Barends and Wright year after year.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Jack Dash Wrote:

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> Really curious to know who, or whom, makes this
> call. Anyone know?

Good question...

Personally I feel that it should be restricted to SA winners. We dont have stand alone Zim meetings, so there is always a meeting here that the jockey can ride in without taking the easy option of going to Zim. If you want to be a Champion jockey, you should be good enough to ride in SA against the rest of your local jockeys and prove yourself here.

My thinking is that the SA based jockey with the most winners at the end of a season should be regarded as the champion,

Titch it just worries me then that Hear the Drums should be Champion SA Sprinter because he won 33? races in PE. That would not happen. Anyway off to races and my opinion only.

break a leg Craig.... BTW If the criteria for Champion SA Sprinter was the horse with the most wins the HTD would be SA champ....

It makes sense to keep it in SA. If we include Zim rides, then how is it fair to those that win in Mauritius and Dubai, Hong Kong and even Lloyd down under.