Gold Coast jockey Ryan Plumb has spent a month caring for his children away from racing
Gold Coast’s leading jockey has stopped riding in order to care for his children and become a part-time teacher to them amid the COVID-19 crisis.
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GOLD Coast’s leading jockey has stopped riding in order to care for his children amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Ryan Plumb hasn’t ridden at a race meeting for over a month, taking his young children Olivia, 7, and Chase, 6, out of school in recent weeks in order to keep the family safe from the virus.
“It’s scary, it gives me goosebumps talking about it,” Plumb said.
“My dad has had a triple bypass and he is 60 so I’m even a bit funny about the kids seeing him at the moment.
“It’s not worth the risk so I thought I’d just take some time off riding.
“It is a loss of income but we are in a good enough position (financially) and have some savings so that hasn’t been a problem.
“There will be racing for the rest of my life, it won’t be like this forever.”
It has put Plumb’s bid to win the 2019-20 Gold Coast Jockeys Premiership under threat, with his margin to closest rival Anthony Allen being cut down to three after last Saturday’s meeting.
“I’m not even thinking about that,” Plumb said.
“I can win it next season. I could be 30 in front but it’s irrelevant at the moment.“
Since exiting the saddle Plumb, whose fiance Jane Kiernan currently works three days a week at the Gold Coast Turf Club, has put his attention into conducting some home schooling for the children.
“I can get the work from the school and they do it every day,” Plumb said.
“They do maths online and thankfully it’s just subtraction and addition so far so I can help. “They are doing a lot of reading and writing.”
Plumb struggles to ride under 57kg but has been coming up with creative ways to maintain his weight despite not riding trackwork and on race day.
“My weight is actually good.
“I do some skipping and play basketball with the kids everyday and go for walks,” Plumb said.”
Plumb returned to trackwork on Tuesday and plans to ride in this Friday’s Gold Coast meeting.
Gold Coast racing officials are likely to decide in the next few days whether their 2019-20 premierships go ahead.
Gold Coast Turf Club CEO Steve Lines said they were weighing up the option of scrapping the trainers and jockeys premierships for the season, which ends in late July, due to COVID-19.
“It’s a work in progress and we will be looking for alignment across the industry,” Lines said.
The virus has forced Racing Queensland to separate the state into racing zones, meaning some jockeys and trainers who normally contest the Gold Coast premierships are unable to add to their tally.
That includes the jockey dubbed the King of the Coast, Dan Griffin, who lives on the Sunshine Coast and will ride in the Metro North region in the coming period.
Gold Coast is part of the Metro South-West region.
Plumb leads the Gold Coast jockeys premiership with 25 wins, followed by Anthony Allen (22) and Allan Chau (20), Griffin (19) and Luke Dittman (17).
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