Change to Jockey random factor situation

Getminted have been closely following the evolving discussion on the Jockeys and the amount of influence a jockey has on the performance of a horse in a race.

The concern from some members is that the jockey is allocated completely randomly. This can cause major disappointment when a horse is placed to the best of a member’s ability in a high stakes race and the horse does not perform as expected, largely due to being allocated a poor jockey. A poor jockey is unlikely to be able to explore the true potential of the horse and of course this causes much frustration.

This frustration is especially prevalent in high stakes races and so we will design a system that adds a higher level of skill when racing at this level.

We have debated this at length with members and read a lot of commentary from you. Largely thanks to your input we have concluded that in high stakes races, the skill of an owner should have a greater influence over the race result.



The system will hence increase the impact that your skill has on the result and reduce the impact that the jockey has. Only championship qualifiers and finals will be subject to this as these are the races in which the other deciding factors such as horse ability, horse placement (suitability for the race spec) and preparation (tack and fitness) are currently near eliminated, where horses are so closely matched whilst their owners are some of the games most astute. This will further be represented in these races by only the top 14 jockeys being allocated to horses in these races.


We will appreciate your continued constructive comments in finalising the design of this system. We anticipate that we will begin development of the system by the end of this month by which time we will be able to tell you how long we expect the development to take.


Once again, thank you for your inputs on this subject. You may have offered alternative ideas that are not totally consistent with this system, and we will be more than happy to offer a reason for any differences that may concern you. Just send the Support Desk an email through the contact us section of the website entitled “Jockey Factor”.