No way! Eclipse hardens jockeys' stance on broadcasting of inquiries in Ireland
Irish Jockeys Association secretary Andrew Coonan has stated that the broadcasting of stewards' inquiries in Ireland would not be welcomed, especially following Saturday's Coral-Eclipse after which Oisin Murphy and Donnacha O'Brien presented their cases on ITV.
The prospect of cameras entering Irish stewards' rooms through terrestrial broadcaster RTE had been discussed in recent years, with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) consenting for the inquiries to be broadcast, but the jockeys opposed the move.
Coonan said: "I can see televising inquiries raises the profile from a public point of view, but not at the expense of the jockey's reputation. Not at the expense of the jockey. Purely from a rider's perspective I would certainly not encourage it, welcome it or want to see it introduced in Ireland."
"Jockeys ride horses to an extremely high level but are not trained lawyers or trained debaters. They'll put their point across in very clear terms, but invariably you will have people in the press, public and twitterati saying, 'Why didn't he say this or that?' and 'What sort of a guy is he?'"
He explained: "It was four or five years ago that we were approached by RTE to see whether we'd considering allowing the inquiries to be broadcast.
"At the time the stewards discussed it and agreed they would consider it, but when the jockeys were approached they said they weren't in favour."
Egan added: "It hasn't been discussed since then with the directors but I don't see any reason why, if the jockeys changed their stance, we wouldn't seriously consider it."
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Published on 12 July 2018inNews
Last updated 16:33, 12 July 2018
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