Guest blogger and aspirant jockey, Benji Ryan (photo: Racing Girl)
W.C. Fields is credited with the line, “Never work with children or animals,” but in her latest Racing Girl blog, Tai Ryan, self confessed ‘Mum, event manager and horse racing tragic’ does just that, featuring her son Benji (an aspiring jockey) as guest writer, Racing Kid.
Anyone with children knows that they are great at nagging! My son is no exception – Ever since I started Racing Girl, Benji has been nagging me to let him write a blog article. After secretly writing one on a recent road trip to Sydney I could hardly say no to his enthusiasm, so this week’s blog is written by my guest writer, Benji… Racing Kid.
HELLO! My name is Benji, I am 8 years old and I love horse racing. I love the competition, the excitement and of course the horses.
Both my mum and my dad work in horse racing and my Poppy is a horse trainer. I go to the races at least once a month and when I grow up I want to be a jockey. Mum says I have to finish Year 12 first!
My favourite racecourse is Caulfield because there is lots of grass to run around on and they have very cool kids activities on Clip Clop Club Days. Swan Hill Carnival is fun and Geelong has jumping castles a lot. When I lived in Sydney I loved going to Canterbury to get my face painted and eat fairy floss. Sometimes going to the races is boring because there are not always activities or playgrounds at all for kids.
The very first horse I sat on was Ironstein at my Poppy’s stables. I was very young. I do not have my own pony at the moment but my friends the Thornton family have a pony I am allowed to ride and look after when I visit them. Damien Thornton teaches me the most how to ride. I know lots of people that work in racing and they all work very hard every day.
My favourite horse is Winx. I saw her win both Cox Plates and can’t wait to cheer her on for her third win. Hughie Bowman and Chris Waller signed a hat for me and I was allowed to pat her. I feel very special to do that. Hughie is my favourite jockey and I nicknamed him The Winx Man. Damien and Brenton Avdulla are dead heating for my second favourite jockey. I also like Snitzerland, Punt Club and Black Heart Bart. My mum has taught me lots about Black Caviar, Phar Lap and Might and Power. I watch their replays on YouTube and read books about them and watch horse movies like Racing Stripes. I am now reading a book about Subzero because grey is my favourite horse colour.
I was lucky to be an actor in a video for the Final Field Cox Plate Lunch last year called Little Day at the Races. It was so much fun to dress up as a jockey with my friends.
I like to watch Racing.com because it helps me learn more about horse racing and how jockeys ride in races. I also like listening to all the different race callers, it sounds like a very hard job. There are so many different jobs in racing, it’s good that so many different people can be involved. If I get too big to be a jockey, there are lots of other jobs I can do.
It makes me a little sad that not many of my school friends are interested in horse racing. I think this is because there are bad stories about racing, the parents don’t like it and it is hard to go to the races when we have sports on. The racing bosses need to make sure there are still people coming to the races when I’m older or I won’t be able to have my dream job as a jockey.
See you at the races!
(source: Reproduced with grateful thanks to Racing Girl Blog’s Tai – and Benji – Ryan)
