RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
Ohokaman

A story we should all heed....

Recommended Posts

35 minutes ago, Trump said:

Typical of many in the NRL. Drugs, rapes, domestic violence, pub brawls, urinating in public, cover ups. Why are you surprised?

You forgot to include beastiality in rugby league, Mitchell Pearce et al....mind you Rangiora is very similar although down there it's not so much a social problem, more of a cultural obligation 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

SPECIAL FEATURE: Inside the Josh Cartwright case

racenet_60x60.png
Racenet - 06 Mar 2017

Racenet has gained illuminating behind-the-scenes insight surrounding the recent Josh Cartwright case – this is a story which all racing participants should read.

josh_cartwrightlarge.jpg
What was going on in the mind of Josh Cartwright? It may not be what you would have thought. Photo: Racing NSW

THE INCIDENT

There have been some big racing stories over the last 20 years or so but nothing has captured as much attention as the recent Josh Cartwright case.

It had everything you would expect to see in a Dick Francis novel - deliberate interference in a race, the intrigue and rumours of a massive plunge coming off and the motive aspect created by the race being won by the offending jockey's attractive Norwegian girlfriend.

The press loved it and Josh Cartwright and his partner, Anna Jordsjo, were splashed across every paper in the world and shown on major news outlets on television.

It was probably the biggest racing story since Fine Cotton.

CLICK HERE for footage of the race - courtesy of Theracessa.com.au.

I was there representing Josh as his lawyer and with his permission, I am able to tell the full story of what happened to quell the rumours and innuendo that are still sweeping through the racing industry.

I cannot name certain people involved in the case for legal reasons but that will not affect the facts of the case in any way.

January 14 was much like any other Saturday to me and most racing people.

I was perched up in my man cave watching the races without incident and was being summoned by my wife late in the day to "get downstairs and cook a barbie."

I saw the last race of the day at Morphettville and I remember feeling happy when the favourite lobbed. Although I didn't have a bet in the race, it is always a great feeling when the bookies get smashed.

After the race, my phone went berserk and I received dozens of texts from mates to have a close look at "the last in Adelaide."

So I did, and like most of us, my jaw dropped and I naturally started to think up all sorts of conspiracy theories about why the jockey on Senior Council did what he did.

It didn't take long for texts to start circulating about big bets being landed on the winner and that the offending jockey's partner had won the race.

The most bizarre aspect from my legal perspective was that the jockey's actions aboard Senior Council appeared to be deliberate.

So I waited with interest to see what transpired and the results of the inquiry were amazing.

THE PHONE CALL

Out of the blue, about a week later I got a call from a good mate of mine, Luke Pepper, who is a great young trainer in Canberra.

He was Josh's master for a few years when Josh rode in NSW.

I actually met him a few times and he impressed me as a fine young kid.

Luke suggested that I take the case and that there was more to it than what was being portrayed in the media.

So young Josh called me and instructed me to act for him in the upcoming inquiry.

I was only too happy to assist him.

THE SITUATION

By the time I got involved, there had already been two days of evidence taken by the stewards.

They kicked off the inquiry on the afternoon of the race which went late into the night.

And then they had a further hearing on the following Monday in which they took additional evidence and examined all the phone, computer and betting records they could get their hands on. 

The starting point for me was getting the transcript of the evidence taken during those two days and I arranged for the chief steward, Johan Petzer, to email them to me when they were typed up.

That took a couple of weeks and I remember printing them out (71 pages) and thinking to myself I would read them in bed one night.

Now I grew up on the streets of Cronulla during the 70's and 80's and I consider myself to be fairly tough.

So I started reading the evidence in bed one Sunday night and at about 11pm my wife woke up and said "what are you crying for, are you reading one of those stupid books again?"

(I read lots of true crime books and sometimes cry at what the victims suffer through).

The Josh Cartwright transcript of evidence had reduced me to tears.

It was one of the saddest stories I have ever read and my initial feelings of scepticism and suspicion were replaced by intense sadness and sorrow for a young man who was literally on the verge of a mental breakdown. 

THE INQUIRY

The next day I called the chief steward and we organised a date for the resumed hearing of the inquiry and penalty proceedings.

This was set for February 13.

I flew down to Adelaide on the Friday before and met with Josh and Anna (his partner) at my hotel on the Saturday morning.

I went through the evidence with him and her and they both impressed me as kids who were telling the absolute truth.

Having been in the law for 37 years, my experience has taught me that the "eyes do not lie."

So when I meet clients I like to look into their eyes when they are giving their version of events and I can usually tell when something is 'off'.

There was nothing like that here I can assure you. 

After working on his case over the weekend, we appeared at the inquiry on the Monday and I was amazed at how much media was present.

I have done dozens of big trials concerning serious crimes such as murder, robberies etc and there has never been anything like the media presence I saw at Morphettville on our arrival for the resumed inquiry.

Josh had been charged and in fact pleaded guilty to improper riding under Rule 137a of the Australian Rules of Racing.

I had researched the precedents of this charge, the latest being the cases of Damien Oliver and Luke Tarrant who received 20 meetings and one month respectively.

I always felt that Josh's was more serious than those cases and I expected him to get anywhere between six and 12 months.

The big issue for us was to avoid a disqualification which would have put him out of racing completely and destroyed his life.

THE EVIDENCE

The evidence was as follows.

There was absolutely no evidence at all of any betting activity by Josh, Anna or anyone connected to them.

The rumour of Josh backing the winner started as an innocent, sarcastic comment made by another rider in the jockeys' room after the race. 

There was no evidence at all of any revenge motive against the other jockeys involved, Jason Holder and Matthew Poon.

There was no evidence at all of any tactic by Josh to allow Anna to win the race.

THE TRUTH

The truth was even worse.

It told the sad story of a fine young man who had pushed himself to the edge to satisfy everyone in his life except himself.

The facts are that Josh is a young man who has lived on the land all his life and his great passion is horses.

He is a horseman in every sense of the word.

His mother and father separated and he was raised mainly by his mother in Albury.

He is highly respected as a horse breaker and pre-trainer.

But from the time he was 15-years-old, the people close to him pushed him hard and if he did not succeed to their expectations, they would brand him a "loser" who would be "no good" and never amount to anything.

This continued abuse sowed seeds of doubt into his young mind culminating in him having suicidal thoughts from the time he was 15 right up to the date of this incident.

It was sad to read and sad to hear.

My heart broke. 

To try and please his critics he worked his arse off.

Breaking, pre-training and eventually riding in races.

Luke Pepper and Brodie Loy told me that Josh would often drive around in his car with two jumpers on and the heater on full blast, just to lose a few kilos so he could ride.

He did this for about six years. 

He was quite a successful jockey, riding numerous winners during his apprenticeship and saving a tidy little sum.

But the knockers were still not happy and pushed him even harder.

"Loser", "no good", "failure" and "no future" were words he would hear often and they would play over and over in his mind.

Self-harm was never far away. 

THE BLACK DOG

He had great success in Adelaide and met his partner Anna whilst they were riding in Dubai a couple of years ago.

They decided to settle in Adelaide via Canberra.

When he received his apprenticeship money he paid a deposit on a farm outside of Adelaide and then took out a dual licence (training and riding) in October last year.

Throughout most of last year, mainly due to the workload and injuries he suffered whilst riding, he expressed a desire to quit riding and concentrate on training, breaking and pre-training.

Again, those close to him talked him out of it telling him "you would be nothing without riding", "you will never make it as a trainer and you will have no future."

Again the "black dog" was never far away. 

So he batted on.

His life from October last year to January 14 this year consisted of him essentially working four jobs.

Riding, training, pre-training and breaking horses in.

Plus the usual work that goes with owning a farm - fences, gates, dams, pipes, staff, feed, bills, bills, bills.

For three months leading up to that fateful day he functioned on four hours sleep per night.

Going to bed at 10.30pm and rising at 2.30am to care for his own horses before riding work and then sweating and then travelling to far away meetings to ride.

He would get home at 7pm, do more work on the farm and collapse into bed at 10.30pm.

Throw into the mix that he would be required to lose up to 4kg in the lead-up to each meeting and, despite being in the middle of a heatwave, he could not eat nor drink for up to 36 hours before a meeting.

It was an accident waiting to happen. 

BREAKING POINT

He had reached breaking point by January 14 and had even thought about "driving into a tree" on the way to the races.

That morning, after having three hours sleep, he got up to work on the farm and accidentally damaged some pipes on his property.

Some horses escaped from a paddock and he actually called the stewards to let them know he was going to be late for the races.

It was like a hammer smashing into a rock, if you keep hammering long enough, the rock will eventually crack. 

At the races he argued with another jockey over a protest earlier in the day.

Nothing major in isolation but another hammer blow into the rock.

He argued with his partner when he told her he wanted to give up riding and by the last race he had decided that he was not going to "wake up a jockey tomorrow."

Now you may ask, as I did, why not just stand down for a while and take a break? 

His answer would only make sense to a racing person.

His young mind reasoned that because racing is such a cut-throat industry, if he stood down and was perceived as weak, nobody would ever use him in any capacity again either as a jockey or a trainer.

But if he got suspended, well that is part and parcel of the game and everyone would understand. 

So out he went for the last race aboard a 50-1 shot and during the race he looked for a way to cause interference so he could get out of the game as a jockey.

If you look at the replay, you can see him look around several times for the opportunity to take another horse's running.

But he could not do it as he thought it was too dangerous at those points of the race.

He even looks inside just into the straight but decides that causing interference there could put one through the fence.

So he sees a horse out wide.

It is on its own and near the tail so he decides to head out there and take its running.

What he didn't realise was that there was another runner outside of it obscured by Matthew Poon's mount.

By the time he got out to those runners his horse was not going fast enough to take their running and he cannoned into Poon's mount and the consequences for Jason Holder were almost disastrous. 

THE QUESTION

Just ask yourself one question.

How emotionally shot, how completely defeated, how hopeless must a person have felt to do what he did?

It was an act of madness by a young man on the edge.

A kid who had been emotionally destroyed by years of being ridiculed and physically destroyed by his lifestyle.

No sleep, no food, no water and the constant torment of thinking he was a failure.

It all caught up with him on that fateful day.

As I said at the inquiry, if my son owned his own farm and ran his own business by the time he was 22, I would be immensely proud.

But it is a sad reflection of this kid's life that despite achieving that, he felt like he had failed.

THE PENALTY

The rest is history.

He received an 18-month suspension from riding and 6-months from training under Adelaide's peculiar local rules.

But importantly, he can still keep his farm and break and pre-train his beloved horses.

His partner Anna is recovering from a broken wrist and will soon be back punching home winners.

Josh has apologised directly to Matt Poon and Jason Holder who are great friends of his.

They have forgiven him and moved on.

So have most of the connections of the horses involved.

I cannot thank Johan Petzer and his fellow stewards enough for the professional and sensitive way in which they approached this case.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that had Josh not done what he did that day, he would no longer be with us.

He is continuing to receive help from respected psychologist Matt McGregor who helped the cricketers when Phil Hughes lost his life on the field. 

THE FUTURE

Whether Josh rides again is up to him.

Maybe if he does he will restrict himself to riding only horses he trains.

Take it from me, he is a decent young man who works harder than anyone I have ever known.

Like most successful people in racing, he has hit a hurdle early in his career.

So did kids like Hugh Bowman, Corey Brown, Brenton Avdulla, Craig Newitt etc.

I am sure that when all this is behind him and he resumes training in August, he will make his family proud, his friends proud, his colleagues proud and even more important, himself proud. 

Like most young people I represent in legal matters, I plan to stay in touch with Josh.

He is not the first and won't be the last young person to make a mistake.

Sadly he is not the only young person in Australia and in the racing game who felt life had beaten them at certain times of their life.

The overwhelming message to come out of this case is to talk to someone if life gets too much. 

Just pick up the phone, send a text, send an email, whatever it takes.

Asking for help is hard, but the damage those who don't ask for help leave behind is even harder. 

If the Josh Cartwright case can help one person who is doing it tough, it will have been all worthwhile.

 

by Wayne Pasterfield

Legal Counsel for Josh Cartwright.

Hope he can sort out the demons in his head.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Need to ask this bloke the question who 'they' are?

Who was it who was telling this bloke he was hopeless and a failure? Was it his parents or his family, his boss, the stipes or his peers or who?

We need a bit more info than this to work out the bona fides of this story in my view.

He might be a great hardworking young man but why didn't he tell this lot to go and get f*^×"#d?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Hermione said:

He might be a great hardworking young man but why didn't he tell this lot to go and get f*^×"#d?

 

Unfortunately depression doesn't work like that.

Not everyone who is depressed has been driven to depression by people telling them they are hopeless either and nor is being depressed necessarily any reason why someone would not stand up for themselves.  There are plenty of well known people, some tragically no longer with us, who would well and truly let people know what they thought depite their affliction. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry Ohakason - I didn't read the attachment, saw the name Cartwright and assumed (wrongly) that the article was about "Bryce Cartwright" and the NRL minder pay off to the pregnant woman! And no, Gin is only taken with Tonic in a milkshake carton, filled with ice, topped up with tonic and delivered to the 14th Tee. :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, TOM(the other Molloy) said:

Need to ask this bloke the question who 'they' are?

Who was it who was telling this bloke he was hopeless and a failure? Was it his parents or his family, his boss, the stipes or his peers or who?

We need a bit more info than this to work out the bona fides of this story in my view.

He might be a great hardworking young man but why didn't he tell this lot to go and get f*^×"#d?

Exactly, who are "they"?

The sad reality is that kind of abusive put down behavior is all too common and even when you reach out for help, tell the facts no k***t gives a flying fig.

The ongoing attacks take it's toll on those who are subjected to such carry on, especially when those one asks for help fail to give those who reach out for help a hand up.

All to often people who are subjected to such carry on get further abused and that pushes one further over the edge, including to suicide.

It's far too close to home for our own liking knowing full well the same sort of nastiness has happened in New Zealand racing circles to someone we know very well who never wanted, nor encouraged the sh**t they were subjected to.

It to this day has had a detrimental impact to how they go about their life and they no longer have the happiness or life they had prior to it.

They have also stopped going to the races, and other places they always happily went, as a result for fear of coming across those who did it.

Those who did it know who they are and to this day have never ever acknowledged ongoing harm on those they abused life.

Most unfortunate when those who should know better don't give a flying fig to reach out when they are asked to right their own behaviours and carry on as if nothing ever happened.

Silent treatment is also a form of abuse.

It's NOT OK to abuse or harass others and most definitely NOT when that person has asked for it to STOP or reported it to Authorities.

There's considerable work still needed in the world with such behaviour.

Incidentally we don't endorse what this jockey did to get attention, although we don't and will never know the full circumstances behind it.

We can only hope that "they' get "help" they all need as they are the ones who need to change their behaviour and lives not the one who is been abused or harassed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.