The boss of the Victorian Jockeys’ Association says the banning of children from riders’ rooms is complex, saying the solution needs to balance a modern workplace and the dangerous job his members do.
VJA CEO Matt Hyland told Betsy while he understands the desire for his riders to bring kids to the races – given many have young children and their partners work – he also made the salient point of the ‘’what ifs’’, especially if a jockey suffers a serious race fall with a child at work.
He said his members were reminded just over a year ago that jockeys’ rooms needed to be child free.
It follows comments from senior rider Craig Newitt who posted on social media on Wednesday about his son being banned from the rooms.
‘’I was hauled before stewards today at Sandown and told my son, who lives and breathes racing, isn’t allowed into jockeys room to help get my gear ready and help clean my gear just like a valet, just like I did as a kid for my father,’’ he posted to social media.
I was hauled before stewards today at sandown and told my son who lives and breathes racing isn’t allowed into jockeys room to help get my gear ready and help clean my gear just like a valet, just like I did as a kid for my father.#gamesgone#mightchangesports
— Craig newitt (@craig_newitt) July 1, 2026
Newitt is just one of many who ride regularly but have young children. Betsy is told often country tracks take a more lenient view when it comes to kids in jockeys’ rooms.
Hyland was at pains to say he understood Newitt’s view and the importance of supporting working families, and can empathise too given the VJA boss spent much of his childhood in the jockey’s rooms to watch his father, Pat, compete.
He said Racing Victoria and the VJA communicated to jockeys in May 2025 that the rooms must be child free.
Hyland said he ‘totally understands’’ the benefits of kids coming to the races, from family bonding, convenience and allowing a ‘’new generation to learn about the industry’’.
But he also made the point that he has witnessed and dealt with the families of his members who have had significant race falls, which he says would be ‘’undoubtedly difficult’’ if a child was on course watching their parent ride.
‘’If we decide to allow kids to come and watch mum and dad, then becomes a whole new discussion of how you manage that,’’ he said.
‘’I heard someone on the air this morning saying that maybe the Stewards could have looked after [Newitt’s son] while the jockeys were out there riding.”
‘’The Steward’s job doesn’t include caring for kids on race day. The Steward’s job is to police the sport. The next step is well, the other jocks can look after the young one, the youngster, or oversee the youngster, if he’s in the room, while dad’s out or dad or mum are out there riding.”
‘’The next question and the final one is: if said jockey, has a catastrophic injury at the races on the day, what do we do then? What do we do? How do we tell or manage the child? It’s complex.”
‘’Who manages that situation? And from my experience, the worst conversations when a jockey has a fall are the ones you are having with the next of kin to update them on the condition of the jockey.’’
Hyland also said the modern-day work environment is strict on working with children permits, which if kids were allowed into rooms where riders are naked, wasting or changing, could raise further complexities.
But the ”worst case scenario” also needed to be considered.
‘’The safety of the jockey is paramount, the wellbeing of the child is paramount,’’ Hyland told Betsy.
‘’I’d ask the people out there to consider the worst case scenario and what do we do about it?”
‘’I grew up in the seventies and eighties going to the races in the jockeys room with my father. I spent my life in a jockey room before I was an apprentice.”
‘’So I completely understand [Newitt’s point of view], but it’s a very different environment and a very different expectation now.”
‘’The risks were the same back then as they are now, but the expectation around managing the risks is a lot different. There is a reason people have to have working with children qualifications before they can actually be in an environment where kids are.”
‘’I know what it’s like to go and see a rider or riders on the ground seriously injured and having to make contact with family and just how hard it is for them. I have lived that experience.”
‘’I asked myself when I read all that yesterday, imagine that person. And then you’ve got an eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen-year-old in the room.”
‘’And that child has dad or their mother is in that situation.”
‘’That’s just another layer to manage. From the Steward’s point of view and integrity point of view, it’s on the balance of the positives and negatives, that the negative impact probably outweighs the positive.’’
Hyland said that if the industry decided that raceday needed to be child friendly for his members, greater work was needed to ensure the wellbeing of all families and the professionalism of the sport were both protected.
He also said that there can’t be different rules for different riders – that if jockeys are allowed to bring a child, then there could be a situation where a large number of kids at times attend a high-risk profession, where they would often be unattended.
‘’There is a lot of jockeys that have kids, and how do you manage that? Particularly over school holiday period, what do we do with that? What do you do with that? Do you need to have some kind of care environment? Or is there a crèche facility? Is that what the expectation is because if it’s good for one [rider], then it should be good for the other,’’ Hyland said.
Racing Victoria said that the rules of racing state no-one under the age of 18 is allowed in jockeys’ rooms, but have provided exemptions in cases of emergencies.
“The Rules of Racing prohibit anyone other than riders with engagements on the day to enter the jockeys room without the prior permission of the Stewards,” a spokesperson said.
“Upon formal application to Stewards prior to a race meeting, a valet may be permitted to enter and work within the jockeys room provided they are not under the age of 18 and have not been guilty of any serious breaches of the Rules of Racing. In the ordinary course, no other exemptions are permitted.”
“The jockeys room is a workplace for professional athletes in a high risk job. Children are not permitted within there for safety, wellbeing and professional reasons.”
