Buick

gone up a notch this season..reminds me of a young Steve Cauthen.. all class and composure
 
He seems to have it all; talent, composure, great hands and tactical nous.
Tom Hogan was delighted with him at York on Gordon Lord Byron both on and off the saddle. He also has great minders which is so important. Long may he enjoy his trade.
 
he has one hell of a clock inside his head..that alone puts him well ahead of 90% of the competition..a sure fire future champion as long as he keeps away from the excesses of life;)
 
Watch his ride on Know No Fear in the last then !!!!

Another typical top jock who won't ride to orders and doesn't give a flying fcuk unless he is riding for a big yard or connections, front runner told to go handy and commit 7f out and kick on, bloody Buick went handy for 1f then broke his jaw reigned him back to nearly last before getting stuck behind horses and then hit him 5 times in the space of ten yards and gave up and stood up on him. Bloody awful ride and probably the worse ride one of mine has ever been given. I would rather use Ann Stokel than him, he's only interested in big races or big yards.

Like 95% of the top jocks, waste of bloody time if the face doesn't fit.
 
i didn't think it was a fair point though...one mistake trashes his career...now thats unfair imo

and to follow on from the Murtagh thread..it seems a popular view that there is a ranking in owners..ie why should aga khan have to come second to a smaller owner..its part of the game isn't it?..the more money you have the more you get notice taken of you.


its the same with owners of any level..they are above the punter...see how it feels to know your place?:)
 
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I recall Richard Hughes (no mean judge of pace himself) drooling over Buick's pacemaking ride on Rumh in last season's Yorkshire Oaks, where he sat just close enough in front to draw the rest into the race and stretched the field from the entrance to the straight, setting the race up perfectly for Frankie on Blue Bunting. Certainly up there with Moore, Hughes and Fallon as one of the best judges of pace in British racing.
Contrast that with the total balls of a ride by Joseph O'B on Tactician at the same meeting (an Ebor he should have won 3l) and you'll maybe appreciate the gulf between a true artiste and the journeyman jockey.
 
Flame said:
Watch his ride on Know No Fear in the last then !!!!

Another typical top jock who won't ride to orders and doesn't give a flying fcuk unless he is riding for a big yard or connections, front runner told to go handy and commit 7f out and kick on, bloody Buick went handy for 1f then broke his jaw reigned him back to nearly last before getting stuck behind horses and then hit him 5 times in the space of ten yards and gave up and stood up on him. Bloody awful ride and probably the worse ride one of mine has ever been given. I would rather use Ann Stokel than him, he's only interested in big races or big yards.
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a common problem flame, better off with a capable apprentice a lot of the time.
 
i think he gave Know No Fear a ride that suited the pace of the race...if he had followed your orders Flame he would have ended up burned out as the race was run at a tempo that was a negative for a front runner..hence the fav was beaten and the one that chased the fav..Misbah ...was struggling after going that pace and finished 11th. 5 of the first 6 home finished from off the pace..and the fav underperformed due to setting it...so htf can keeping a horse off that pace be deemed a bad ride?

This is what gets me when a jockey is given orders that don't fit what pans out in race...ooh hold him up no matter what the early pace..oooh chase the pace even if it breaks the horse. Then when a jockey does that he gets it in the neck..not the owner or trainer who gave him the wrong instructions

I don't think you can have a gripe with him on this occasion as the pace didn't suit your instructions..but its just easier to blame someone else and you just know lots of the owners on here will join in without even looking at why the jock did what he did. Might be worth studying pace a bit more before criticising the jockeys.
 
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Good post EC. Never understand why anyone would book a top jockey and then want to slavishly tie them down to a specific set of instructions. By all means, have a plan, but if the race doesn't pan out as anticipated, you must allow the jockey to adapt to the individual circumstances of a race.
 
Seconded.

Some of the owners on here have the attitude they are the fount of all knowledge horse racing. This coming from someone who 20-30 years ago was a small time owner breeder himself, me. If you book a top jock expect him to adjust if the race does not pan out as thought. Personally I always booked the best rider I could when my horses first came on the track because I knew the output I could get from them after a race would be invaluable further down the road.

Of course you're always free to choose Ann Stokell next time. Good luck with that.
 
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I think the above points are fair and agree but as an owner who is paying the jockey to ride surely it's your prerogative to tell them how to ride YOUR horse regardless of whether it ends in tears or not. In a business if the owner tells an employee to do something even if they disagree it gets done generally otherwise there are repercussions.
 
Kauto said:
I think the above points are fair and agree but as an owner who is paying the jockey to ride surely it's your prerogative to tell them how to ride YOUR horse regardless of whether it ends in tears or not. In a business if the owner tells an employee to do something even if they disagree it gets done generally otherwise there are repercussions.
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In this case the jockey is not the employee of the owner. If I hire a tradesman to do a job he is not my employee. I'm paying for a service and hoping for the best. If it doesn't work out I have to figure out how to deal with it. I think that's what we have here. If the jockey was being paid a retainer in effect tying him to a stable that would be a different scenario.Then I as an owner would be asked to pay a monthly fee for this purpose and then could demand whatever I wanted from the jockey regarding instructions, and it could then have repercussions if the "employee" failed to adhere to them. In this case what are the repercussions. Buick wont ride for Beek anymore and will move on without thinking much about it, as he most likely rode the horse to the best possible placing. Sounds harsh maybe but as they say it's a tough game.
 
Interesting scenario, for this topic, today in Baden Baden. Novellist was making his reappearance in the big race today who as the hot favorite in the German Derby was "only" second. The jockey was made the fall guy, even though it was discovered afterward that the horse was running a fever. I'll admit that at the time I did not think it was a particularly inspiring ride. As he is retained by the stable the owners made use of their "prerogative" card and yanked him off ,replacing him with Buick today. The stable jockey was sent off to Turkey to ride for connections in the big one there. Finished a creditable 3rd. Novellist was all at sea in Baden Baden never threatening and running a distant 4th. I await with a certain amusement the aftermath of this race.
 
brendanr said:
In this case the jockey is not the employee of the owner. If I hire a tradesman to do a job he is not my employee. I'm paying for a service and hoping for the best. If it doesn't work out I have to figure out how to deal with it. I think that's what we have here. If the jockey was being paid a retainer in effect tying him to a stable that would be a different scenario.Then I as an owner would be asked to pay a monthly fee for this purpose and then could demand whatever I wanted from the jockey regarding instructions, and it could then have repercussions if the "employee" failed to adhere to them. In this case what are the repercussions. Buick wont ride for Beek anymore and will move on without thinking much about it, as he most likely rode the horse to the best possible placing. Sounds harsh maybe but as they say it's a tough game.
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So you're saying because an owner doesn't pay a retainer the jockey is at liberty to ignore instructions? There's a difference as well with paying for a service say a dry cleaner you know what you're expecting and if they balls it up you have course for complaint and probably not paying that's not the case here.
 
Kauto said:
So you're saying because an owner doesn't pay a retainer the jockey is at liberty to ignore instructions? There's a difference as well with paying for a service say a dry cleaner you know what you're expecting and if they balls it up you have course for complaint and probably not paying that's not the case here.
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you wouldn't tell the dry cleaner how to do his job though..because you don't know much about dry cleaning...so why try and tell a jockey how to ride a race when you don't know how fast they will go for the first 2 furlongs which itself dictates where your horse should be within it.. basically... you would have more chance of success telling the dry cleaner how to do your clothes than know how fast that jockey will be travelling after 2f...both are best left to the person with the experience which you don't have..and money don't buy no matter how much you have.
 
I'll open this out to one of the most famous rides..Dancing Brave in the Derby. I haven't read what Starkey had to say about that day..maybe one of you guys may know.

My question re that is do people think that Starkey alone made the decision to hold him up off a slow pace or was he told to hold him up no matter what speed they went. I can't see how that decision was purely Starkey's...but who gets the blame since that day?
 
In line with what EC says here. I've been in the position to "tell" the jockey how to ride but always left it to them especially if they were at the top of the tree like Buick. It's different for apprentices. It's been my experience that more often than not owners who want to burden the jockey down with riding instructions probably are successful in other wakes of life and think they can carry that over into horse racing as an owner. Usually an ego thing.
 
I agree with Chris on this one, the same time and effort and money going into getting a horse to the racecourse, when Buick first arrive he was very polite and greatful when riding a winner, this season he has become very cocky, just he's whole persona say's arn't i good when being interviewed, you are only as good as the horse you ride, and if you dont want to listen to the trainer or owners instuctions then dont take the ride there's always a few lining up behind you, the jockey's get paid paid the same riding fee if its at Royal Ascot or a seller at wolverhampton, we saddled a horse there once and the jockey had come from newmarket for the one ride, we said about the travelling and he said if I dont do it someone else will! very polite and intelligent, he deserves more ride's, these day to day rides are the bread and butter, racing is very fickle, up one minute down the next, Buick will do well to remember that, he might just need the smaller owners and trainers again one day!
 
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EC1 said:
I'll open this out to one of the most famous rides..Dancing Brave in the Derby. I haven't read what Starkey had to say about that day..maybe one of you guys may know.

My question re that is do people think that Starkey alone made the decision to hold him up off a slow pace or was he told to hold him up no matter what speed they went. I can't see how that decision was purely Starkey's...but who gets the blame since that day?
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That's the other side of the coin isn't it. When the jockey rides to instructions and loses because of it you don't see owners rushing to the nearest microphone absolving the jockey and blaming themselves.
 
Too true Brendan.

Good post EC. Never understand why anyone would book a top jockey and then want to slavishly tie them down to a specific set of instructions. By all means, have a plan, but if the race doesn't pan out as anticipated, you must allow the jockey to adapt to the individual circumstances of a rac
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Exactly.
 
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