YOU may seen the half-furlong race for jockeys staged before racing at Ayr last Saturday.

Sponsored by Ladbrokes, who donated a total of £2,000 to the Injured Jockeys Fund, the race was won in effortless fashion by Jason Hart, doing a good impression of Highfield Princess or Jm Jungle, top sprinters he has ridden in recent seasons. David Egan was well beaten, again showing that Irish sprinters are just not up to it at the moment.

It got us thinking ‘Who would win a similar race for Irish jockeys?’

Shane Foley was a champion distance runner in the past but hung up his runners a few years ago. When we asked Shane to look around the weighroom and give us a form guide on the current crop of flat jockeys, he nominated Ben Coen as one of the fittest but said he was not an expert on the next generation.

We called Robert Whearty next and he seemed pretty confident that the Ger Lyons yard would do very well. “Between James Ryan, Jack Kearney and myself, we wouldn’t be too slow out of the stalls,” he said. And we wonder if they all had to give 5lb to Nicola Burns what price would she be?

So now all we need is a racecourse to step up and put it on. We’d suggest Naas but we’re afraid those drawn low would be withdrawn (off-feed).

The jockeys’ race at Ayr was inspired by a similar event on a dirt track in Peru which saw 16 riders take part. The first two home stuck to the inside rail.