Victoria stays ‘safest’ course
Segregation lingers amid virus spike
VICTORIA’S top jockeys will continue to be segregated until further notice to limit any risk of a COVID-19 positive within riding ranks.
Talk of any relaxation for the protected “Green team” jockeys, who only recently started riding track work again, has been put on the backburner as Victoria fights a new spike in coronavirus cases.
Victorian Jockeys’ Association boss Matt Hyland said the race day separation must stay in place.
“We haven’t had a case in our industry and that’s been a huge result,” Hyland said.
“We need to make sure, as we come out the other end … don’t just automatically say it’s all in again and it brings us undone.
“You look at how quickly it crept into the AFL … once it gets into the sport you got to go into damage control, trying to work out how you can work around it.”
In March, Racing Victoria invited jockeys to be part of “Green” and “Gold” teams to mitigate the risk of infection.
The protected Green jockeys, including Damien Oliver and Craig Williams, had to abide by rigid work and lifestyle restrictions.
Meanwhile, the VJA will continue to lobby for the minimum weight scale to be lifted by 1kg after Racing Victoria and the Australian Trainers’ Association rejected a proposal yesterday.
The minimum was raised from 54kg to 56kg during the pandemic to take the pressure off jockeys with limited access to gyms. It led to leading jockeys including Mark Zahra and Ben Melham to push for a 55kg minimum post-COVID-19.
“That was always the case, we would need the support of the trainers’ association,” Hyland said.
“We’ll just keep the communication going … we won’t roll over just like that.”