Supercomputer robots will not substitute jockeys, says racing legend Ruby Walsh
The super jockey, who rode 2,800 winners, says bots will never bond with horses like humans
Racing legend Ruby Walsh edits the Daily Star (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
Don’t bet on robots replacing jockeys, says racing legend Ruby Walsh. He reckons horses will never bond with bots like they do with humans.
And they could not deploy any jockey ‘s***housery’ to put off their rivals. Ruby, 46, who rode 2,800 winners in a glittering 24-year career, reckons his old job will be safe from the rise of the robots.
He said the art to producing a winning racing team was using mind games to convince a horse to trust its rider. Bots will never make that connection.
Ruby said: “You’re not ever physically going to ever be able to control the horse. That’s just physics,” said Ruby. “You put a 9st, 10st, 11st jockey on a horse that weighs half-a-ton – physically the half-a-ton wins all the time.
“It’s always going to win. So all you are ever trying to do is win the mental battle with the horse and get the horse to trust you and allow you to dictate what the horse is going to do.
“It’s a mind game and the horse has to trust you. If you get the horse to trust you, you can then ask the horse to do what you like.
“Horses are incredible animals but they need to trust you. To do that you need to be kind, gentle. It’s hand signals. It’s control.
“As soon as you start to row there is only going to be one winner and that’s the horse. I think there are loads of things that AI will do and there are lots of jobs that AI will take. I don’t think we will see robot jockeys.”
Ruby spoke out as he dropped by the Daily Star’s London office with the Cheltenham Gold Cup ahead of this year’s festival. He admitted he used to put off rival jockeys by chatting to them during races and telling them they had a great chance of winning.
It gave him an advantage particularly against younger riders who struggled to do two things at once. I always thought most people could not talk back to you,” he said.
”You would get to the young lads. Start talking to them – just general conversation. ‘You’re going well. You’ll win.’ F****** wrecked them. It’s not really s***housery. But they’re struggling to do two things at once.”
Ruby rode a record 59 winners at Cheltenham including two Gold Cups and won the Grand National twice.
*The Cheltenham Festival takes place from Tuesday 10th – Friday 13th March. Tickets to all four days are still available at https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/cheltenham-festival/
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