What’s harder: riding a racehorse at over 40mph, or commentating on a race with 16 runners done in under a minute?

York Racecourse decided to put four ‘Group 1 winning’ jockeys to the test. Ahead of this week’s Sky Bet Ebor Festival, the course asked them to commentate on a past Coolmore Nunthorpe that they’d actually won. You can watch and hear how they got on at by following York’s social media channels and on their website news. The jockeys did a pretty good job, but they all agreed to stick to race riding for the foreseeable future.

The four riders – Luke Morris with Marsha, Jason Hart and Highfield Princess, Paul Mulrennan on Mecca’s Angel and Sean Kirrane with Live In The Dream – were ably coached by ITV’s main commentator, Richard Hoiles. The jockeys might have done well when they switched role, but Richard admits that he’s unlikely to change career and become a jockey, as much as he’d like to, since he’d struggle to ride at under 10 stone.

Richard Hoiles commented, “I was amazed at how well they all did with this – much better than I would do on a horse! This was loads of fun and just highlighted what a bunch of professionals they are.”

Luke Morris said, “I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and it was great to relive Marsha’s win but I’m going to stay firmly in the saddle!”

The ‘race calling’ challenge is part of a raft of activities being undertaken by jockeys at York this week with the aim of engaging, entertaining and educating racegoers and TV viewers. Under the umbrella title of “under Jockeys Orders”, the initiative will culminate in a unique jockey-centric afternoon on Friday (23rd August) that will also include autograph signing sessions, a pop-up jockey gym, race-riding demonstrations, tipping advice from two retired classic-winning jockeys and special stickers on jockeys’ breeches that will identify them by surname.

Watch Sean Kirrane commentary here.