Jason Watson

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
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Just catching up with this story.

I'm all for shooting jockeys that deliberately get a horse beat (there wouldn't be many left) but I'm very sympathetic towards the lad on this one. He lost a huge amount of ground early in the race and I reckon he was fully justified in 'looking after' the horse, a juvenile debutant-delinquent.

I wonder if he had really got after the horse and given it a hard race to finish a few places closer but nowhere near being placed would the stewards have taken a dim view of it and sanctioned him for giving it an unnecessarily hard race?

Just another case of common sense not prevailing among self-serving inbreds.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Just catching up with this story.

I'm all for shooting jockeys that deliberately get a horse beat (there wouldn't be many left) but I'm very sympathetic towards the lad on this one. He lost a huge amount of ground early in the race and I reckon he was fully justified in 'looking after' the horse, a juvenile debutant-delinquent.

I wonder if he had really got after the horse and given it a hard race to finish a few places closer but nowhere near being placed would the stewards have taken a dim view of it and sanctioned him for giving it an unnecessarily hard race?

Just another case of common sense not prevailing among self-serving inbreds.
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Absolutely agree, crazy decision. You’ll see from the Noted in Running thread that I thought that Oisin Murphy didn’t put up much of a fight on Neptune Legend in the same race. That didn’t seem to bother them, but poor old Jason gets hammered when he goes 15 lengths behind the leader from the get go.
 
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Absolutely right. I thought he was hard done-by when he got 2 days when winning on the Wohler filly at Lingfield. I can understand why he's feeling victimised.

One thing I will add though is that Charlton has had three 2yo runners this year and they've all basically done the same thing. (See Honky Tonk Man). The winning filly at Salisbury did too, but not to the same extent.
 
barjon said:
Hope so. Picking up on what you said earlier perhaps they ought to fine Charlton instead for sending runners to the track badly schooled and blowing punters’ money at the outset :)
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Maybe but they're two year old babies and practice at home in the stalls is never going to replicate an actual race start with all that's going on around them.
He must have dumped one of their daughters badly to get that ban. Absolutely crazy.
 
Reduced to 5 days but then on only ride of the day he gets the 2 back for not keeping his horse straight (probably fair).

Someone has got to help this lad get it right. He's a good jockey and horses run for him but his confidence must be knocked for 6 at the moment.
 
Can’t believe he lost the appeal, I thought it was a slam dunk that he’d win it. Every day there are horses “eased” or “not given a hard time” when their chance has gone, so on the logic of the Watson case there should be half a dozen suspensions every day.
 
Off the top of my head I wouldn't know the answer but how many suspensions end up overturned at the appeal stage, as opposed to reduced?

I never expected the ban to be overturned; just a reduction in its duration. I'd have thought it would have been by more than two days, though.

I'm with ED on this. Someone needs to get into the lad's head and re-focus him.
 
Last piece on this I hope but I compare this race with its Stewards' Report to the Lingfield Watson 2 day ban where he seemed to cause little trouble:

Race 3 - 2:20pm
THE BETWAY ACHILLES STAKES (CLASS 1) (Listed Race)

Approaching 1½ furlongs out the winner, KING’S LYNN edged left-handed at the same time as MOSS GILL (IRE), placed second, was angled right-handed around the heels of TARBOOSH, unplaced, causing KING’S LYNN and MOSS GILL (IRE) to bump, but after viewing a recording of the incident, it was found that no riding offence was involved and that it had not improved the placing of KING’S LYNN.

Inside the final furlong the winner, KING’S LYNN edged left-handed at the same time as MOSS GILL (IRE), placed second, lugged right-handed, causing the pair to come together and make light contact, but after viewing a recording of the incident, it was found that no riding offence was involved and that it had not improved the placing of KING’S LYNN.

On the run to the line MOSS GILL (IRE), placed second, lugged right-handed despite the efforts of its rider to correct the gelding, briefly carrying the winner, KING’S LYNN off its intended line, but after viewing a recording of the incident, it was found that no riding offence was involved.

I feel more consistency is required and that they should be careful that 'they don't get on someone's case'.
 
Last year I wrote on the Jockey News thread about Watson. Time to say some more.

Watson's twitter page says he's the No. 1 Contracted Rider to Roger Charlton. Thursday Charlton had two winners and though admittedly Pleasant Man was withdrawn from the Princess of Wales Stakes , Watson had no rides for Charlton. I look today on the Sporting Life website and though Charlton has runners over the next 6 days Watson is on none of them.

What has gone wrong? At the end of the 2019 season Charlton said something to the effect that no jockey is perfect but I cannot be more pleased with the riding of my new stable jockey Jason Watson. What has changed things?

In 2018 an 18 year old Jason Watson beat strong opposition to become Champion Apprentice. Attached to the Balding stable (itself full of strong jockeys and apprentices) Watson seemed to have something special. In October of that year Roger Charlton lost his stable jockey Kieran Shoemark. A month later he announced that Watson was to be the new Stable Jockey at Beckhampton.
Though it didn't start well for Watson, with a near-career-ending injury in January, by May he looked as comfortable as could be expected when getting a double at Newbury on Headman and Withhold. He went on to ride Headman to two Group 2 wins in France and he also won a German Group1 on Aspetar. Charlton's 2yos started appearing and the real star became Quadrilateral. Watson got her home narrowly on her debut against some experienced fillies. She reappeared a month later and ridden similarly at the back came through to win by 9 lengths. She then went on to win the Fillies Mile narrowly and had a much tougher race. Watson’s season finished well with plenty of winners for his stable.

2020 was a disaster for many but it certainly was for Watson. The first weekend of the season was Guineas weekend. Quadrilateral, already physically impressive, was reported to have improved over the winter and started favourite. She disputed the lead throughout the race but was easily beaten by Love, a filly she’d beaten at Newmarket. Nothing noticeably happened but there’s no denying Watson had an unfortunate Royal Ascot. He got no improvement out of Quadrilateral in the Coronation, rode an injudicious race on Headman in the Prince of Wales and had an unlucky passage on the difficult to ride Blue Mist.
Somewhere along the way he picked up a suspension and soon afterwards it was noticeable that Charlton was sometimes using other jockeys. One of Charlton’s owners appointed Hollie Doyle to ride his horses.
However by September he seemed to have partially recovered the situation. He had good wins on a couple of Charlton’s fillies (Love is You and Beheld), he won another Group 2 on Aspeter and was generally riding for all owners (except Alsager). Despite that Moore rode Quadrilateral in her third start of the season and did no better on her than Moore did. Watson finished his season by winning the Ceserawitch for Mullins.
Most people will have seen what has happened this year. It was mid-June before Watson rode a winner for Charlton. Now he seems to be used hardly at all by his retaining stable. This situation must be unbearable for Watson and untenable for Charlton. A career that seemed full of promise at the end of 2019 seems in a difficult position and now seems in the doldrums. Why has this happened?
 
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I’m not sure if he ever did (the work riders do) but Watson doesn’t rate a mention on Charlton’s website.
 
Though nothing has been announced it looks as if the split has definitely happened. Watson has 7 rides for O'Meara in the next 6 days.

Will be interesting to see if there is an official announcement. The usual time for arranging new jockey relationships used to be the Goodwood meeting but that seems to be too far away. Will we ever know the full story? I have some theories.
 
Colin Phillips said:
Are you going to share, ED?
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Will do something when I have time.

Noticeable that now he's not called on by Charlton that he's getting more rides. In the next 2 days he's got 11 mounts, which is more than he was getting in a week prior to the obvious split. Most mounts are for O'Meara. He seems to be close to Maddy O'Meara, headgirl at Kingsclere where he was originally based.
 
Saw a post pop up somewhere else earlier today that said he had been disqualified for weighing in light after losing through sweating during a race? If true someone really has it in for him bless him.
 
G-G said:
Saw a post pop up somewhere else earlier today that said he had been disqualified for weighing in light after losing through sweating during a race? If true someone really has it in for him bless him.
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And if anyone does reply to this, why did the trainer get a £500 fine because of it? Thanks (apologies for hijacking your comment)
 
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Yes, officialdom seem to have it in for Watson and I suppose the trainer was collateral damage. Mind you, he was 2lb light and that’s a lot of sweat.
 
I play badminton with someone who could lose that in a half a game! And that's in an air conditioned sports hall. Under what rule did they fine the trainer? Has to appeal surely. Utterly ridiculous.
 
2lb is more than the leeway that they're allowed and none of the other jockeys lost weight in the race.

The weight was either lost deliberately or accidentally. Either way, between weighing out and weighing in, the saddle is in the care of the trainer and then the jockey. If weight has been 'mislaid', it can be seen as a joint responsibility.
 
Joke. In usual summer weather in this country, 2lbs may seem excessive but we've been in middle of mini heatwave! If he came back with any weights he went out with, surely? Just 'cos none of the others did.
Run by morons living in the 19th century.
 
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