What about a DVD memento for winner?
For a jockey who has scaled the heights of world racing and just last year partnered a once-in-a-lifetime filly in Zarkava, Christophe Soumillon (pictured) was surprisingly chuffed to land the Jockey Challenge at Sha Tin 11 days ago.
The Belgian-born champion of French racing was excited by the success but wondered, out loud, why there is no trophy for the Jockey Challenge winner. It's great for the winning punters, he acknowledged, because they get a dividend. But the winning jockey, what about him?
Surely, a dinky little trophy would look forlorn in Douglas Whyte's trophy cabinet and at the rate he accumulates them, it would seem that the trophies had a life of their own, reproducing like rabbits. But even the Durban Demon admits to a slightly empty feeling that a Jockey Challenge success gives him after the initial adrenalin rush has subsided.
'I don't know what the answer is,' Soumillon confessed, 'but to win this is special to all the jockeys and I feel they should get something, some recognition, for their trouble.'
On The Rails likes to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, so what about this idea: the prize to the winning Jockey Challenge rider could be a specially-made DVD that records and commemorates the day. The Jockey Club has a professional audio-visual department, the equivalent of a small television station, and whipping up the DVD would be simple work for them. The DVD could show footage of all the rival jockeys as a lead-in, followed by with the videos of the races in which the winning rider scored his points.
It could feature slow motion replays of the final stages of the key races and include an interview with the jockey after his victory. The Jockey Challenge hero would then have a proper document of his big day that would survive the ages, a priceless pearl his children and grandchildren could treasure. Live action replays of the family's very own hero jockey, beating world-renowned champions at their own game.
Now that would be meaningful.
