SUNDAY DANCING BRAVE COLUMN

                        --------   JOCKEYS ARE STARVING TO WIN ------ Part 1

 

 

There's a dirty secret in thoroughbred racing - starvation.

 

The jockeys who control charging, half-ton thoroughbreds are constantly battling to reduce their weight - starving themselves, using steam baths, taking diuretics and eating and vomiting so they can weigh 45 kilograms (100 pounds) or less, a Sunday Guardian probe has found.

 

In Trinidad and Tobago it is no different, with several jockeys, because of their weight, being forced out of riding as trainers and owners are always interested in the lowest weights for their horses, ignoring the other side of the coin: the poor lightweight jockeys that exist in Trinidad.

 

 It is very easy if you are close friends with any of the jockeys to witness the hardness of their features built over years of absurd wastage, that have them looking drawn and beaten.  Many jockeys age terribly in a short period of time, and this may explain sometimes why jockeys even in Trinidad and Tobago in the past have been found guilty of using some illegal drug.

 

It seems, though, that nobody cares what jockeys have to do to ensure they earn a bare living in Trinidad and Tobago and in the world, as the rest of this article will reveal.

 

"Most riders work really, really hard at keeping their weight down," said John Giovanni, executive director of the Jockeys' Guild in New York, recently.  "One reason their careers don't last so long is they kill themselves reducing.  They diet and use the sweatbox.  A lot of them jog in rubber suits, and some jockeys "flip" - they eat and regurgitate."

 

Eating and purging, a dangerous eating disorder called bulimia, "is in every jockeys' room," said former top jockey "Hollywood" Herb McCauley, who suffered from it for 20 years.

 

"It's said, it's something you try to hide, but it's there.  A lot of riders who do it eat like it's their last meal.  You're famished, so you eat and throw up," he said.

 

Dr. Arthur Heller, a nutritionist and digestive disease expert at New York Presbyterian Hospital, said the starvation practices could have terrible consequences.

 Jockeys can suffer the brittle and thinning bones of osteoporosis, blood disorders kidney and nerve damage abnormal heart rhythms, fainting spells, and muscle weakness and cramps.

 They can "tear a hole in their oesophagus and throw up blood," Heller said.

 

Jockeys say extreme weight-loss measures are widespread - and unnecessary - the result of the racing industry's refusal to change century-old weight limits.

 

They say it's time for change - a few pounds.  That's all.  It won't make much difference to a 1,000-pound horse, but it will make a big difference to the 100-pound jockey who rides him.

 

 The weight in question, called the tack (the total poundage of the jockey in full gear, plus saddle and saddlecloth) varies from race to race.  In the Triple Crown races in Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, the horses carry 56.5 kg( 126 pounds).

 

But in other races, the tack can drop to 50.5 kg(112 pounds) - sometimes less.

 

"Each generation keeps getting bigger but the scale of weights, which is the lowest of any country that has racing, hasn't been adjusted for years.  It's time it was," Giovanni said.

 

Hall of Fame rider Jerry Bailey agrees: "It's far overdue.  It would make my life a lot easier and extend my career.

 That's true for 75 to 80 percent of the guys, and I'm being conservative."

 Bailey isn't the only great jockey who battles the scale.

 For most of his career, Laffit Pincay Jr., the "winningest" rider of all time, fought his weight so much he'd eat half a peanut for lunch on a plane.

 

Former Kentucky Derby winner, Chris Antley once ballooned to 145 pounds, then ran miles and miles a day for months to get back to riding trim.

 

Aaron Gryder, the leading reinsman at the Aqueduct racetrack winter meet, follows a strict diet of toast or fruit for breakfast, no lunch, and a salad or piece of chicken or fish for dinner.

 Still, he spends an hour or more in the sweat box every riding day to drop two or three pounds.

 "Even if I didn't have to fight weight, I'd still be in favour of (raising the scale)," Gryder said.  "It's the only thing in racing that hasn't changed in 100 years.

 "If you walked into a health food store and looked at a chart, it would say someone my height (5 feet 6 inches) and (29) should weigh 140 pounds - not 112.  The sauna might be nice for 15 minutes, but it's not a healthy place to be five times a week, all day.

There are many punters who cry foul when an outsider defies all the form and wins a race.Some say that this race is a "Jockey race" and, while there is no evidence to substantiate this claim, can anyone in light of what the riders have to endure for low incomes, expect them to be different to politicians that always seek their own interest first.

 

Somebody needs to care, and to care very soon!

 

:: AB