The nature of a jockey's profession requires the ability to withstand pressure, manage expectations and make good decisions in a matter of seconds. However, when applied to negative Twitter responses, it becomes a little more complicated.
While jockeys must endure the physical demands of their job which requires strength and stamina, it goes without saying that having to endure the trolling comments of fans on top of this can be a little overwhelming, to say the least.
Myracing, a website which provides daily horse racing tips for every meeting in the UK and Ireland, conducted research on the most trolled jockeys on Twitter, taking a closer look at the total number of Twitter responses.
This information was then categorized into the number of negative and positive tweets as well as the percentage of negative and positive tweets each jockey received.
Top 12 jockeys with the highest number of negative tweets
Ranking | Name | Flat/NH | Number of Negative Tweets | Percentage of Negative Tweets | Total Number of Tweets Received |
1 | Oisin Murphy | Flat | 8,740 | 65.52 | 13,340 |
2 | Frankie Dettori | Flat | 4,389 | 66.17 | 6,633 |
3 | Hollie Doyle | Flat | 3,276 | 59.15 | 5,538 |
4 | Irad Ortiz Jr | Flat | 2,938 | 63.48 | 4,628 |
5 | Tom Marquand | Flat | 2,337 | 62.64 | 3,731 |
6 | John Velazquez | Flat | 2,070 | 65.69 | 3,151 |
7 | Jamie Spencer | Flat | 2,068 | 78.33 | 2,640 |
8 | Hayley Turner | Flat | 1,764 | 64.47 | 2,736 |
9 | James Doyle | Flat | 1,260 | 70 | 1,800 |
10 | Paul Mulrennan | Flat | 1,156 | 58.62 | 1,972 |
11 | Harry Skelton | NH | 975 | 76.47 | 1,275 |
12 | Jim Crowley | Flat | 962 | 76.47 | 1,258 |
The results show that, of all tweets received by jockeys in the last year, between 58-78 percent of them included negative sentiments.
Of all public Tweets sent to three-time champion jockey Oisin Murphy, 65.52 percent of them included a negative sentiment after a controversial year that culminated in a recently announced 14-month ban. The Irishman received a total of 13,340 tweets, 8,740 of those being negative.
Other jockeys with the most negative tweets received included Frankie Dettori (4,389) in second place and Hollie Doyle (3,276) in third.
After 50 years of competing along with their male counterparts, it seems women still face huge challenges on the racecourse. Not only is Doyle in the top three for receiving 3,276 negative tweets out of 5,538 in total, but fellow female rider Hayley Turner received an even higher percentage of negative tweets than Doyle – recording a concerning 64.47 percent.
*Myracing stands firmly against social media or any form of abuse. This campaign simply highlights how more needs to be done to protect our sports personalities.
The post Twitter Research Reveals Europe’s Most-Trolled Jockeys; Murphy, Dettori, Doyle Among Top Three appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.