As the horses charge down the straight next Saturday and the trainer and jockey of the winner are about to get all the accolades and associated media coverage - spare a thought for the stable hands who did all the hard work behind the scenes and who are often working hours way beyond what they are paid for, according to an industry insider. As some of the colours in this photo identify certain stables, it is not suggested that these stables are abusing their stable staff.

On 14/4/10 I penned an article which was entitled “Racing Has Been Stuck In Reverse Gear For A Long Time.”

In that article I listed the three codes of racing as having nine integral cogs in the wheel - namely in no particular order - controlling bodies, punters, breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys, bookmakers, race clubs and TAB’s.

One reader took offence that I’d left out one of the most important groups in all of racing - the stable staff.

“CJ”, whose full name has been advised to the website, but has been left off the story so that the trainer in the story doesn’t get identified wrote in part in his email “Being a long time admirer of your work, I have to bring you to task regarding your list of participants from your article 'RACING HAS BEEN STUCK IN REVERSE GEAR FOR A LONG TIME' dated 14/04/10.

You are a fair writer and I love your honest approach to most things related to racing and I also admire your simplistic point of view, something a lot of turf journalists make too complex for themselves, because they write for the corporate media. However, as per usual, the single most important group of participants in racing has been cold shouldered again in your article above, namely: Stable Staff".

So after reading CJ’s initial email to the website, I accepted he had a valid point and afforded him the opportunity to have a standalone article go up on the website, outlining his point of view.

CJ accepted my offer to advise my readers about the plight of stablehands and wrote:

I was part of this group for a very dedicated 10 years and have come out the other-side shocked and appalled at the lack of protection, lack of organization and complete abuse that not only I was subjected to, but as an industry group of participants we were subjected to on a daily basis. I have been as active as one person can be in trying to highlight the plight of us humble stable folk but as I was consistently advised, your better off finding a job that pays you well, I have done so. However I cannot forget the ones left behind.

The need for a voice at senior levels of administration is long overdue, however I believe there is a massive resistance to this being established, for one not only will it empower the stable staff employed by trainers who make it their business to abuse the people under their employ, but it will highlight the massive injustices that occur in this industry towards the people who choose it as a profession.

I may be one person choosing to champion the cause, but I ask, as a group should it take this much effort to get recognised?

When it comes to the most overlooked, under resourced and most abused section of the Racing Industry, without doubt the winner is Stable Staff. I was a very dedicated member of this group of warriors that are up every day before dawn, checking on the horses that would be sent to the track in my trainers’ name, yet would never see an ounce of thanks or grace from.

In an industry that has a quoted $5.5 Billion net worth, the next time you go to the races, ask the strapper next to that horse how much they earned last week. Ask them what time they got up that morning and also ask them when their last day off was. I bet the answer would be “I don’t want to tell you, it’s embarrassing, sometime between 2.30am-4am and probably Sunday a week ago”.

I was never interested in racing myself, I remember vaguely seeing Might and Power win his Caulfield Cup and I switched the channel. It all changed when a chance invitation to the Doncaster at Randwick put a bug in my neck the size of Texas. I decided to get involved in the industry and thought I would be best served working my way up from the bottom, so I started working in stables.

I studied horses, got qualified and started to work at Randwick and loved it. Loved the lifestyle, loved the horses and loved life. I had set my goals and soon in charge of a major Sydney metropolitan stable winning many races with plenty of black type successes. I loved winning a race. I would take horses anywhere my trainer thought they could win. Yet the next morning, or when I would ring the boss, especially after a win, I never heard a word of thanks. The days were long, and I knew this lifestyle took dedication, so I never questioned it and when I look back on it now, I think I should of.

There is no excuse for the working conditions that the Stable Staff of the Australian Racing Industry are subjected to. A typical day in the life of a stable hand would be up between 2.30am and 6am, get the horses worked, usually finishing between 8am-10am, a couple of hours break, then back to tend to horses in the afternoon anytime from 1pm-5pm. If you throw in a race meeting, good luck spending less than 12 hours of the day at work.

A 38 hour week simply does not exist as stipulated in the federal award. It would not be unusual when I worked in stables to work a 60 hour week and be told, well that is the job. The current federal award that covers the racing industry is not worth the paper it is written on. Only one trainer I have ever worked for adheres to the stipulations set out by the federal government. If you discover any breaches and bring this to the attention of your trainer, knowing stable staff have no level of protection, it is a case of “my way or the highway”.

If you were to ask any trainer what their number one concern is, in running their business, most probably would answer “reliable staff”. Working with horses is not for the faint hearted. Horses are dangerous animals, they can kill you. However a bite, strike, kick or the battle cry of “one away” is not unusual in day to day life with horses.

I have ridden horses on a racetrack, but never ridden pacework. The track work riders of any stable are the unsung heroes of the racing industry. Whilst a jockey gets $150 for their race ride and 5% of a winning stake, the humble track work rider usually gets $500 a week, yet spends so much time on horseback, educating and ensuring readiness for a jockey to jump on and hand race day glory to their trainer and jockey, receiving very little thanks in return.

An owner pays the trainers bills, yet the stable staff who look after that horse and present it on race day are looked down upon like a bunch of drunk, or drugged up, uneducated fools that should be treated like the carpet the administrators tread on the way to their office. And don’t think it is only the administrators that think this. I have witnessed many trainers, owners, breeders, officials even journalists berate a horse handler, or talk down to them, simply because they are trying to calm a 500kg animal, whilst they stand on the other side of a fence.

An owner or trainer are afforded a high level of hospitality at the races, a strapper is charged $2.50 for a bottle of water and up to $6 for a sandwich, yet who is more vital in terms of putting the show on? When Randwick opened the brand new horse stall complex in October last year, despite the fanfare, there was no facility to enable you to buy something to eat and drink if you took a horse, yet you have to be at the races 2 hours before your race and maybe wait for an hour after until you can even go home, then when you get home, you look after your horse and then maybe find something to eat and drink before you pass out. Simply not good enough!

The massive proliferation of unskilled migrant labour in racing is a major issue. Look at a mounting yard next Saturday on T.V and look at the faces leading the horses around. Every single migrant worker that was hired when I was stable foreman required a massive amount of skills training to be able to lead a horse, let alone be able to safely and competently be able to perform the duties required to safely do the job. To make matters worse, they could walk into the stable, straight off a plane and answer two questions and be paid exactly the same as my competent skilled colleagues. Do you speak English? And do you know horses? With two “yes” answers they were employed and then it was left to me to ensure that not only the horses were getting to the races in one piece, but that the staff weren’t getting injured on a daily basis.

There are no easy solutions to this problem, however the industry as a whole needs to look at the front line employees in a stable and start to shoulder a massive amount of responsibility for the treatment and welfare they are receiving. There is no national association or union that the industry has taken the step of introducing, to give support to front line workers. Is it the racing industries responsibility? Yes it most certainly is.

The industry needs to change the approach to stable employees and go from an abusive parent to a thoughtful and caring one. Currently 15% of a winning cheque is split between the trainer and jockey, there needs to be an introduction of stable percentages. If a trainer didn’t have the staff working with them, they would not be getting horses to the races. They need to be rewarded and the trainers should be the ones accommodating that change.

The industry should also be making further skills training available away from horses. The national prize money pool was recently docked 1% by the Australian Racing Board to give jockeys money to fund skills and rehabilitation for life after being a jockey. However what provision has been made for the countless stable staff and track work riders out there who get seriously injured? Again, none!

Victoria has made it compulsory for stable staff to obtain a qualification to work with horses. NSW is in the process of rolling this change out too. I was a qualified member of staff, in a senior level management position, yet was lucky if I would take home $700 a week.

There needs to be the establishment of a National Stable Staff Association. Without fear of reprisal for being a member, it needs to be financed by the industry itself as a show of support and encouragement to be the integral part of racing. I have left racing, not because I wanted to, but because the industry has no protection for members of staff such as me who love the industry but cannot afford to live because I love horses.

The need for a voice at senior levels of administration is long overdue, however I believe there is a massive resistance to this being established, for one, not only will it empower the stable staff employed by some trainers who make it their business to abuse the people under their employ, but it will highlight the massive injustices that occur in this industry towards the people who choose it as a profession.