Newmarket RC 209 Report post Posted March 8, 2019 TWITTER TROLLS ... GIVE IT A REST The next time racing’s twitter trolls start giving a jockey a disgraceful bake, they should think of two words. Tye Angland. It’s extremely distressing to consider the situation Angland finds himself in – he simply went to work one day to do his job and now he finds his life forever changed as a quadriplegic. I’ve always had enormous respect for jockeys – small individuals who sit on 500kg+ horses and put themselves in harm’s way every single time they are legged up on one. It was one of the reasons I kicked up for them on Racenet last year when they were fighting for a pay rise in Victoria – and my stance at the time was unpopular with many sections of the industry. Jockeys are highly paid sportspeople and – just like other highly paid sportspeople – they should rightly be subject to scrutiny and criticism when they put in a poor performance. But the amount of atrocious verbal attacks on social media I’ve seen on jockeys lately, from mostly anonymous types who hide behind fake identities and have probably lost $5 betting on a favourite, is beyond the pale. And at times it has been worse than that - Angland himself had his car vandalised by a disgruntled punter after he was beaten on Press Statement in the Group I Golden Rose in 2015. It was certainly great to see social media flooded with sympathy and well wishes for Angland when the sad news was announced the other day he was a quadriplegic. But some people need to have a good, hard look at themselves. Some of the very types that were expressing sympathy for Angland were only a day or a week earlier giving some of his riding colleagues disgracefully abusive serves for what they perceived as poor rides. It’s got to stop – there’s a huge difference between acceptable criticism and personal and foul attacks. The Racenet family wish Angland and his wife and family the very best for their future. Ben Dorries Racenet jack, scooby3051, napier and 6 others 8 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...