Kah’s relaxed, encouraging style of riding, which she honed riding in the equestrian world before she became an apprentice, firstly took Adelaide racing by storm and now it is Melbourne’s turn.
Similarly Pike, who rides in an old-fashioned way with his feet firmly positioned in the irons and also with a long-rein, dominated Perth racing for many years but has spread his wings in the past year and is now seen more regularly in Melbourne.
Kah is re-writing the record books in Melbourne and she easily won the riding premiership and set a record in doing so.
Pike has been to the fore when seen at feature meetings in Melbourne and regularly rides Group 1 winners.
The gulf in the way the pair rides only emphasises that it’s whichever style that suits the rider is the best way to ride.
Every era of racing has shown that. No champion jockey is a carbon copy of another jockey. There simply isn’t a homogenous riding style and no two riders ever look the same in the saddle.
As former jockey, former apprentice’s coach and now chief executive of the Victorian Jockeys’ Association Matt Hyland points out, this is just a continuation of what has always occurred in racing with jockeys having contrasting styles.
“There’s no right or wrong way. You can’t tell me that Jamie Kah is more effective than Willie Pike and vice-versa,” Hyland said.
While each style is unique, there is no doubt there is a change of riding style happening which is more in line with the way Jamie Kah rides.
Hyland acknowledged that Kah’s style was more aligned to the way apprentices are taught to ride these days. Kah is also distinctive in that she sits forward in the saddle.
James Winks has a bird’s eye view of the jockeys’ riding style as he is coach to several jockeys. He agrees the Kah style is more of the template for modern-day jockeys.
Winks, who rode five Group 1 winners, retired from riding in 2020 and started coaching Regan Bayliss, becoming Australia’s first riding coach.
As a result, Winks is watching countless hours of race replays and is in a great position to assess what is going on with jockeys in terms of styles.
“Times are changing and evolving. No doubt there is a change going on which is one to more of encouragement, in the way Jamie Kah rides,” Winks said.
“Horses run for her. She’s happy to sit three deep and get her horse flowing. She says she doesn’t do any form and she’s happy to ride each horse so they can flow into a race which is the key for her.”
Winks said he approached every individual knowing they have their positive and negative traits but also knowing that no two jockeys have the same styles.
