Time to scrap one-meeting-per-day rule

WHEN Covid-19 first hit, various sports introduced new rules to keep their respective shows on the road. One that was welcomed in racing was restricting jockeys to ride at just one meeting each day.

It made sense. If there was an outbreak, then it would be limited to one racecourse and the virus could easily be tracked or contained. Although Covid is still out there, the vaccination programme has significantly reduced its effectiveness and with crowds essentially having been back to normal for more than six months, it’s no surprise the onemeeting-per-day riding rule is being revised at the end of the season.

It was also no shock to see Tom Marquand emerge as one of the leading voices in favour of scrapping the rule. A quirk in the system does actually allow jockeys to ride at more than one meeting as long as one of them is outside Britain. It seems crazy that you can ride in Ireland or France in the afternoon and in

Britain in the evening – but riding two tracks that are an hour next to each other on home soil is a no-go. It makes little sense and Marquand is understandably frustrated. He’s a young jockey willing to travel and if that option was available to him, then he’d be willing to go the extra mile to get closer to the jockeys’ championship. He said: ‘It’s something I would happily get back to. It’s a bit of a silly rule. I was always of the opinion the one-meeting rule was great while we were having eight or ninerace cards during Covid bubbles. But now we’re having six-race cards with an amateur or apprentice race, the field sizes are smaller and there aren’t as many opportunities.

Other jockeys, such as Paul Hanagan, want the rule to remain in place. He said: ‘Personally, I did that (travel) for more than 20 years and I do not know how there wasn’t a bad accident.’

Marquand is 24 and Hanagan is 41. They are two jockeys at different points of their careers and a cast-iron rule should not cover both of them. It’s a lifestyle choice. Just because some jockeys are keen on slowing down should not restrict others that are willing to speed up.