Rider Instructions

[Honu]

Originally Posted by ninetoone

Insiders, I am curious as to how this goes...I have only been privy to a set of instructions once, and it was from a trainer to a rider on a claimer at Pimlico..."ride him how you feel"...

I am specifically interested in what they tell the jocks on horses like Henny Hughes in a race like the Sprint or others who will soon have a new career in the breeding shed. Do they ever tell them not to take any chances, etc? Do some jocks have carte blanche to ride however they want, no matter the trainer? Just wondering. Thanks!

Some trainers like to almost draw a diagram of how they think the race will run and where they want the jock to be, like they might say go to the front and dont like back , but sometimes the front is moving faster than the horse can run lol. I think trainers give instruction maybe the first few times a jock rides a horse but after that the jock should know how to ride them and the trainer shouldnt have to say much.
When I had the bug ( a million years ago ) I had a trainer tell me once that the vet had mistakingly gave the horse the wrong meds and there was no way I could let the horse win because it would test bad, I told him that it really wasnt my problem and that maybe he should just scratch, well the horse ran and the guy had nothing to worry about as my dead grandma could have went faster than that horse lol.