Racing Victoria and Racing NSW stewards will not grant consent for licensed jockeys to participate in the digital form service Ride Guide.
Ride Guide, a program designed by media company Unscriptd, was launched at last Saturday's Caulfield meeting on the Ladbrokes website, available only to Ladbrokes customers. Ride Guide pays riders to give their opinions on their mounts at specific meetings, but was flagged by stewards as posing problems with integrity and financial arrangements. Both sides met at RV headquarters on Tuesday to discuss the potential problems, and the stewards announced on Thursday jockeys would not be permitted to participate.
Australian Jockeys' Association General Manager Des O'Keeffe expressed disappointment with the decision, telling Racing.com, “today's reaction shows us that, as an industry, we are well behind other sports in embracing important opportunities to increase our appeal and exposure.”
He added, “I left Tuesday's meeting confident that Unscriptd had successfully addressed all concerns and that our jockeys would be able to continue to promote our sport in a fully professional way that met all integrity obligations. That not being the case, it makes me wonder what else is going on in the world of racing politics that has led us to where we find ourselves today. At a number of meetings between industry officials and those behind Ride Guide, the concept had been embraced and endorsed by industry regulators, so it was pretty stunning to hear so many concerns raised after the launch last week.”
O'Keeffe said the AJA and Unscriptd are calling on officials to re-engage in an attempt to work through the issues with Ride Guide, and he said legal action is also a possibility.
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