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When Jockeys Attack On Horseback

It isn’t common for jockeys to start belting each other mid-race, yet Gavin Lerena’s wild attack on Jason Gates is not the first and it likely won’t be the last time that two riders clashed on the track.

Gavin Lerena found himself in the news for the wrong reason after he lashed out at fellow jockey Jason Gates during a race in South Africa on Sunday, and that blow-up followed an incident during a barrier trial at Conghua days earlier, when Hong Kong rider Matthew Poon hit out at Derek Leung.

Poon was handed a two-meeting suspension for his “attempt to make contact” with Leung after the latter was judged to have accidentally struck his fellow jockey with his whip.

But that was a pillow fight compared to the footage doing the rounds on social media from Turffontein: Gates must have been glad he was wearing a body protector as Lerena unleashed three of the best across his back during the afternoon’s second race. Lerena, usually a measured character, quickly put out a contrite statement sharing “deep regret” and “sincere apologies.”

Lerena’s statement, though, also suggested firmly that from where he was sitting Gates was no angel in the matter: “I do want to clarify that my reaction followed encounters and actions from Mr Gates. In any competitive sport, the instinctual response to a perceived threat, provocation, or aggression can lead to a reaction that, under normal circumstances, we would not exhibit.”

When jockeys strike it is unacceptable, but whenever anyone hits out there is always something that set the spark, whether that be the action of another or a ‘snap’ of the synapses inside a rider’s own brain: sometimes some existing grudge or needle between jockeys is an element to it, other times it might be a heat of the moment reaction, something akin to road rage, perhaps, after being impeded.

Jockeys are competitors, they respect the dangers tied to their job, and they by and large respect their fellow riders, but they also have that edge all elite athletes must have, a desire to have the upper hand, to win, whatever the situation might be. And let’s not overlook the effects that wasting – in plain speak, being hungry and drained – can have on an adrenaline-fuelled person’s mind and temper.

Gavin Lerena
GAVIN LERENA, DANEHILL KODIAC / Shergar Cup Classic // Ascot /// 2016 //// Photo by Julian Herbert

Way back in September 1994, Kieren Fallon, an exceptional talent but a man never too far from trouble, gave in to an existing resentment between himself and Stuart Webster. It was at Beverley, England, the Joe Mangles Memorial Handicap, and Fallon took exception to Webster. He followed him after the horses had crossed the line, rode over to where he had pulled up, grabbed him, and dragged him off his horse. That apparently in turn spilled over into a fist or two being thrown in the jockeys’ room. Fallon was suspended for six months.

That was a different beast to the shocking elbow Christophe Soumillon thrust into Rossa Ryan that sent the Irishman tumbling to the floor during a Group 3 race at Saint-Cloud, France in September 2022. Soumillon can consider himself lucky that a) Ryan wasn’t injured and b) the stewards didn’t hit him with a punishment more severe than a two-month suspension.

Soumillon said in an interview that he was “sad with what happened,” referred to the “terrible mistake” he made and apologised “to everyone … it was not a nice act from my side, and I’m terribly sorry.”

That same weekend at Miguel Salem Dibo, in the Ecuador Derby, Jose Mora was reportedly given a life-time ban from race-riding after he reached out and pushed Peruvian jockey Luis Hurtado off his horse at full racing pace. Luckily Hurtado escaped serious injury.

The Lerena–Gates incident, though, is up there with some of the most visually striking in-race ‘jockey attack’ moments the sport has seen, and there have been some that had to be seen to be believed. 

It was similar in look to a couple of incidents in the United States: the first of those was at Philadelphia Park, now Parx Racing, in January 2010; the second was at Will Rogers Downs in May 2016.

The incident in Philadelphia saw Eriluis Vaz throw a punch at Ademar Santos as they raced in the backstretch. Santos retaliated with a hit and Vaz responded by thrashing back with his whip. Vaz had angled his mount into Santos’ mount and the latter had shouted out asking why he had done that, sparking the attack by Vaz. The pair received stiff penalties: Vaz was suspended for 200 days and Santos for 90 days.

As an aside, in 2012 Vaz was barred from the Philadelphia track after a complaint about him entering the female jockey changing room on three occasions while jockey Kristina McManigell was showering. She took a civil lawsuit against him citing “assault, invasion of privacy, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” 

At Will Rogers Downs, Natalie Turner unleashed wrath on Freddy Jose Manrrique-Guerrero. The latter made intentional contact with Turner coming off the turn into the home stretch and Turner responded by rising in the irons and hitting him three times with her whip. Both jockeys were ordered to attend anger management classes and received 30-day suspensions.

At the other end of the scale, not all contact between jockeys is violent. Mel Schumacher was caught out grabbing hold of rival jockey Tom Hill’s leg in a stealthy move to gain an advantage during the closing stages of the 1961 Australian Derby at Randwick, Sydney. The move, which required great riding skill, impeded Hill’s mount Summer Fair and Schumacher took the win on Blue Era.

But early days head-on footage was available for the first time and it showed Schumacher holding on to Hill. It wasn’t an attack, but the contact resulted in a hard penalty, a lifetime disqualification that was reduced to 10 years.

As for Lerena’s thrashing of Gates, the National Horseracing Authority of South Africa will hold an inquiry on a date yet to be set, and there the circumstances and mitigations will be heard: whatever they are, Lerena’s high in the irons three-strike explosion can expect to receive a heftier suspension than Poon got for his barrier trial swish and miss ∎

David Morgan is Chief Journalist at Idol Horse. As a sports mad young lad in County Durham, England, horse racing hooked him at age 10. He has a keen knowledge of Hong Kong and Japanese racing after nine years as senior racing writer and racing editor at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. David has also worked in Dubai and spent several years at the Racenews agency in London. His credits include among others Racing Post, ANZ Bloodstock News, International Thoroughbred, TDN, and Asian Racing Report.

View all articles by David Morgan.

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