JOCKEYS DYING TO
MAKE THE WEIGHTS
Compiled by Andre
Baptiste
The Independent
Part One
April 7, 2000
Page 30
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, an
Independent 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.
In
recent times, we have seen the quiet exit of one of the better jockeys in
Trinidad in Jodie Arneaud, whose weight problem made it impossible for him to
win several rides, but whose intelligent riding would have won many races that
lightweights have lost.
Carlos
John is another such jockey whose lifestyle prevented him from losing weight,
yet when he gets a chance to showcase his talent he is able to produce great
results.
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.
Still,
many horse owners and trainers are against any increase in weight limits. So
are some racing officials, who fear that if they assign higher weights, the
horsemen will send their runners to tracks that don't.
"It's
a subject that needs to be addressed," said Giovanni, who is spearheading
the guild's efforts to convince state racing commissioners and their umbrella
groups - the Racing Commissioners International and the North American
Parimutuel Regulators Association - that the limits should be raised and
standardised.
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, for instance, the
horses carry 126 pounds.
But
in other races, the tack can drop to 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.
Last
year's 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.
"If
they raised the weights just two or three pounds, it would make things much
easier."
There
are many punters who cry foul when an outsider defies all the form and wins a
race, an example of which is Fleet's Band (21-1) success last Saturday. 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!
HEALTH PROBLEMS IN
RACING
The Independent
Part Two
April 14, 2000
Page 31
An
examination of the bodyweight of leading jockeys in Trinidad and Tobago reveals
a tale of starvation: One that has left many prospective jockeys in shambles
and explains why there are no lady jockeys in this country at present.
Champion
jockey Rajpaul Rajkumar has a bodyweight of 51.5 kg, Dale Whittaker 48.5 kg,
Brian Harding 51 kg, Noble Abrego 54.5 kg and Hanif Emamalie 51 kg. The average man weighs 79 kg.
These
top jockeys will get a ride on most days based on reputation and their riding
records, but when the allotted weight of the horse (46-50 kg) is below their
weights, most trainers will choose one of the apprentice jockeys.
An
example of the problems of weight can be seen when comparing two apprentices:
Naim Samaroo is perhaps more talented than Navin Mangalee. Unfortunately, Samaroo's bodyweight is 52
kg, while Mangalee's weight is 46 kg - which has resulted in Mangalee earning
more bookings and ultimately more winners.
There
is a need for some proper monitoring of a jockey's best weight that gives him
the best health and will also allow him to ride at his best.
If
we continue to ignore this plight in our racing, then very soon we will face
the day when one of our jockeys/apprentices simply falls off a horse out of
dehydration. And this, certainly,
nobody who lives horseracing wants to witness.
Racing
associations in the United States are not sitting idle. As the rest of this article reveals, we need
to be equally vigilant in Trinidad and Tobago because jockeys are people too.
Dr.
Ira Sacker, an expert on eating disorders at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn,
learned while researching his book Dying to the Thin that "one
(toilet) stall in the jockeys' room was marked "heavers". There used to be a competition over who
could eat the most and who could throw up the most."
Of
the jockeys' weight-loss methods, Sacker remarked. "This is scary stuff.
You've got to feel bad for them because there's no easy answer."
McCauley,
42, began when he was 18, rode more than 20,000 races, won more than 3,000 and
earned $70 million in purses. During
that time he broke his foot, collarbone, shoulder, ribs and wrist and punctured
his lungs - retiring in 1998 after a spill in which he fractured his leg in
five places from the knee to ankle. A
titanium rod now holds it together.
But
McCauley's injuries paled in comparison to the bulimia that made his life
hell. From a high of 128 pounds,
McCauley had to get down to 107, to make a tack of 112.
"I
tried everything. I took so many slabs
of Ex Lax, to this day I can't eat a chocolate bar," he said.
At
times, McCauley resorted to Lasix, a diuretic used by many jockeys that
causes excessive urination.
"That
takes five to six pounds off, but it also takes all the fluids electrolytes and
minerals out of your body," he said. "All of a sudden your body
cramps up and you're not the jockey you're supposed to be. You come down the stretch and think a hot
poker is going through your hips."
Then,
he said, you become a "sponge" - soaking up fluid and gaining even
more weight. McCauley was bulimic for
more than 20 years.
"Sooner
or later your body adjusts. It's mind
over matter. You just turn it into part
of your job - eat and get rid of it. When you go in the bathroom, gross as it
might be, you just lean over, relax and tighten your stomach muscles, and flush
the toilet."
When
he stopped riding, McCauley finally came to grips with his disease.
"After
my accident, the day my five-year-old daughter started school, she and I took a
photo. When the picture came back, I
started crying. Here I was, a man of
41, and there wasn't a heck of a difference in the size of my legs and
hers. It scared me to death."
Other
former star riders have similar cautionary tales.
Hall
of Famer Steve "The Kid" Cauthen was Sports Illustrated's
Sportsman of the Year as a 17-year-old apprentice in 1977 and the following
year won the Triple Crown on Affirmed.
But it wasn't long before the weight battle took its toll.
In
1979, Cauthen moved overseas, where the weights are higher and he soon became
the top rider in England. Eventually,
meeting even the higher weight - three or four pounds, in general - was too
hard to struggle, and he quit riding.
"That
was the toughest thing about racing for me," he said. "I wasn't afraid of getting hurt. I loved the thrill, the competition, the
glory and glamour. But weight was the
most negative side of my whole career."
Retired
Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr., winner of more than 7,000 races and
three Kentucky Derby features, subsisted on a starvation diet.
"I
only ate one meal a day for 34 years," he said. "It's very uncomfortable when you make all that money and
can't eat like a person. Sometimes you
let yourself go and have a pizza, but I had to pay the price the next day and
I'd hate everybody who was with me."
Cordero
was so thin, when his spleen was removed after a riding accident that ended his
career; the stitches couldn't hold the wound together.
"I
didn't have any fat," he said.
"They kept coming out of my skin."
One
practical reason for raising the scale of weights, advocates argue, is that
without going to extremes to reduce, jockeys could ride to their best ability.
"Anything
you do to put yourself in a weakened condition has to affect your
performance," Giovanni said.
"I don't know of anybody who's ever passed out on a horse, but I've
seen guys come back and pass out after they rode."
"The
scale of weights is killing a lot of kids," Cordero said. "You sacrifice so much it makes you
weak. First you work in the morning,
exercising horses. Then you have to
pull weight without eating. Then you
ride all day. Then you come home and
can only eat a little bit. Then the
next morning you do the same routine. It
wears you out, mentally and physically."
But
many oppose increasing riders' weights.
"Personally,
I'm against it," said one veteran New York rider. "I ride light and don't have to
reduce. Changing the scale would be
like lowering the net in basketball. Then
anyone could be a basketball player. I think
jockeys should be small."
Hall
of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas agrees: "Granted, some riders have had
problems," he said. Maybe they're
not cut out for the profession. You have
to have parameters. Some people will
meet them, some won't. If it's not
broke, don't fix it. Weight on horses
is obviously detrimental to soundness and I don't think we should fool with
it."
McCauley
counters: "In this case, it is broken and needs to be fixed. It's worth fighting for. I hope it happens for the guys out
there."
Trinidad
and Tobago Racing Authority (TTRA) are responsible for local jockeys / apprentices'
welfare. One can only hope they are not
turning a blind eye to the needs and necessities of a profession that is
equally as important as owners and trainers.
Without riders, there would be NO RACING.