ONE of the features of the past week has been the focus on the unfair abuse of jockeys, a subject which was dealt with extremely well by Kate Tracey, the girlfriend of the beleaguered jockey Ciaran Gethings, whose unseat on a 25/1 outsider in a moderate handicap at Hereford had come under extreme scrutiny on social media.
Some of that criticism spilled over into uglier sentiment, and Tracey, rather than seek to stoop to the same level, pointed out that repeated abuse and trolling can have serious repercussions on jockeys who are already prone to extreme physical and mental stress. All criticism can hurt, of course, but when it turns nasty, as in Gethings’ case – forcing him to delete his Twitter profile – the polarising effect is magnified.
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