The proverbial can of worms is set to see action this morning at 10.30am when the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) meet. Jockeys Craig Williams and Nash Rawiller are seeking to have their riding suspensions from the Bendigo race meet put on a ‘stay of proceedings’ to allow them to race in the Melbourne Cup tomorrow.
This is not the first time athletes have utilised civil law proceedings to have decisions made by sporting administrative bodies to overturn decisions with the AFL seeing similar action before the 2005 Grand Final.
Under laws of precedence, there have been severe reservations to proceed down these murky waters across all codes. It is the absolute last resort and undermines sporting administrators and the values of the code.
The decision to uphold Williams and Rawiller’s suspensions after an appeals hearing at Racing Victoria on Friday has significant implications on the Melbourne Cup.
Williams has been booked to ride second favourite Dunaden who won the Geelong Cup and Rawiller Unusual Suspect.
Williams and Rawiller will claim that the connections of each horse prepared their mounts in the lead up to the Melbourne Cup under the assumption they would have had their booked jockey’s onboard. Whether this is a reasonable assumptions looks to be the crux of the hearing.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on the preparation of these horses and that will be little compared to the possible prize money won in the Melbourne Cup with booked jockeys aboard.
Racing Victoria will use all historical evidence to say that jockeys who have caused interference in the past provide their own precedence in that, they will cause interference in future races.
The VCAT arbitrator must not use any racing knowledge to cloud judgement and therefore cannot undertake the assumption that all jockeys will cause interference some time in their career. A fact amongst regular punters.
The ethical dilemma of taking a sporting matter beyond the code administrators raises societal issues into the power of our governing bodies. Following a Friday morning hearing at Racing Victoria, Williams and Rawiller’s lawyer have attained a Monday morning hearing at VCAT where regular civil hearings take several weeks to be heard.
Under Racing Victoria law, the jockey’s must be suspended starting Monday which would rule out their Melbourne Cup rides. Williams and Rawiller will seek to begin their suspensions after the Melbourne Cup.
The laws of Racing Victoria are merely rules in the societal scheme of things therefore giving VCAT the power to overrule Racing Victoria by delaying the suspension but not overturning it.
It is dangerous territory. If the jockey’s are successful, this would create irreparable damage across other sporting codes.
Blessed with civil liberties, Williams and Rawiller are exercising their rights but hopefully common sense will prevail.
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