Mandy Radecker (pictured) was such a good apprentice that she even won the 2007/2008 Brisbane apprentices title, yet when she came out of her time as an apprentice, she was flat out getting a ride, as the industry shuns apprentices who have lost their claim and become senior riders. Today Justracing looks at the last six years of Brisbane apprentices and is flat out finding even one who was a "successful" apprentice, let alone being "successful" in life as a senior rider.

Whilst the racing industry needs to acknowledge and applaud the wondrous feats of some of our apprentice jockeys, one also needs to stand back and smell the roses and fully assess the situation before concluding that we actually know what we are doing as an industry – in respect of these young people.

It’s all well and good to read where apprentice Anthony Allen rode five winners at the Doomben meeting on Saturday 14 July, or that Rosie Myers rode two winners at that same meeting, or that on that specific day claiming apprentices rode all eight winners on the card, as Maija Vance rode the other winner on the day – and all this positive stuff, but sadly in the vast majority of instances, the excitement and income from those days as young and successful apprentice jockeys simply does not transpose to the days when those apprentices become fully fledged jockeys, as one after the other, they will be flat out getting enough rides in races, even in the bush, to allow them to have financial security.

Whilst it is taken as read that every jockey riding in the senior ranks today had to initially come through the apprentice ranks, taking a look at the list of yesterday’s apprentices who struggle today to get rides is indeed really quite alarming for the industry.

As I’m the only person in the media in this country to put up the Brisbane apprentices weights each Friday night, let’s go back in time for the same month, July, in each of the last six years - and see what apprentices were riding in Brisbane and we’ll then see how many of those listed have been proven to have “successful” careers as senior riders.

So last Saturday in Brisbane the apprentices that were riding at that Doomben meeting were noted last Friday night as being 10 and they were:

Now if you have a look at those aforesaid names, can you see just one within those 10 names that looks like say a young Mick Dittman, or a teenage kid called Shane Scriven coming through the apprentice’s ranks? With the greatest of respect to the 10, I watch an awful lot of videos and I cannot for the life of me see even one name there that going forward, would be given to become a “successful” senior rider when they leave the teenage ranks. In fact it’s a no brainer that the group really only get rides because they can claim two or three kilos on primarily slow horses that need every bit of help they can get just to win a race. So it’s not ancient history, take Race 5 at Doomben last Saturday that was won by bolter Solebid. The race had 12 starters and of the 12, no fewer than seven were ridden by claiming apprentices so there is a fair chance, by sheer weight of numbers alone, that a claiming apprentice will ride the winner and sure enough Jason Letherby who generally can’t even get a ride in town on a Saturday rode the winner.

One year prior to last Saturday on the website on Friday night 29/7/11 - I reported the following apprentices were riding the next day at Doomben:

If you have a look at those names, the only two who may make a go of being “successful” as senior riders are Tim Bell who is now in the senior ranks and he rides okay and from watching videos, Michael Hellyer is very underrated as a jockey, yet he’s flat out even getting a ride. With neither connected to a big stable they are in many ways like the boy with the barrow.

Then one year earlier than that on Friday night 23/7/10 the apprentices that were riding at the Eagle Farm meeting were:

Any names jump out off the page at you there as being apprentices who later starred as senior jockeys? I don’t think so. Put bluntly no one wanted to know them when they’d lost their claim.

Then one year earlier than that, on Friday night 24/7/09, these were the apprentices riding the next day at Doomben. Their claims were not recorded.

Again there are no names there that have gone on to successful riding careers as a senior jockey.

On Friday night 25/7/08 I reported the following apprentices were riding at Doomben the next day:

Sorry to be like a broken record but none of these six jockeys went on to have bright futures as senior jockeys, albeit Mandy Radecker got sick, but even though she had a wonderful career as an apprentice jockey, when she finished her apprenticeship she was flat out getting a ride.

On Friday night way back on 27/7/07 the apprentice riders who were named on Justracing as riding the following day at Doomben were:

So by picking out a day in late July in each of the last six years - I should be able to get a good overview of exactly what apprentices have ridden in Brisbane in that timeframe. As some appear in multiple lists during those six years worth of names, in alphabetical order those apprentices read:

So over six years, with records taken off just one date during July annually, there are 34 individual named apprentices. Obviously Anthony Allen has just come onto the scene and Maija Vance will go back to New Zealand and some will get too heavy, and so on and so forth, but in the main, the rest of those mentioned have either a) been injured, b) have walked away from racing, or c) have scratched out a meagre existence when they left the apprentice ranks and become fully fledged jockeys. So whilst the industry pats itself on the back when a kid out of nowhere suddenly rides four or five Saturday city winners, it would seem to me that we need to do more as an industry to give these young people the opportunity to earn a living when their apprenticeship days are over, as I can’t see too many success stories emanating from the Brisbane apprentice jockey ranks in six years. Can you? Now if you can’t either, then it means that there is something dramatically wrong with the way we handle apprentice jockeys. Amazingly other young people who complete other apprenticeships along the path of life, like say apprentice mechanics, apprentice carpenters, apprentice hairdressers and the like, generally go on to have wonderful and financially rewarding careers – but not so in racing. Interestingly those other apprentices from other occupations also start their working life earning a pittance and become high income earners later on when they come out of their apprenticeship. In racing, to me we do things totally stupidly as we give them a hundred thousand dollars annually, or whatever, if they are highly successful apprentices - and then when they become senior riders we let their income crash to the basic wage when they can’t get any rides. To me that’s like putting the cart before the horse.

And don’t think for one moment that the problem with apprentice jockeys is restricted to Brisbane racing – it’s not – in fact the same scenario is repeated throughout the length and breadth of Australia and it requires a national approach to resolve it. One suggestion I could make to assist would be for the controlling body in each state to withhold say $100,000 of earnings of “successful” apprentices and paying them $10,000 of that $100,000 each year for their first ten years as senior riders. That strategy would then help them come to terms with the substantial downturn in income they experience from merely entering into the senior jockey ranks.

The Brisbane situation in respect of apprentice jockeys will become more unique to the Australian industry as more ageing jockeys – like Larry Cassidy, Grant Cooksley and Jeff Lloyd - decide to call Brisbane home, creating less opportunities for younger riders to become successful senior jockeys.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there is all the news about 1) the upcoming Betoota meeting and 2) the fact that Goondiwindi is definitely racing this coming Saturday. On www.sydneyracing.com.au what licensees have been outed for 28 days, then on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls catches up with trainer Chris Alford and shows an interesting photo as to why a winner was clipped the way he was.