THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - PHYSICAL DEMANDS OF 'UNNATURAL LIFESTYLE' HAUNT JOCKEYS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, August 5, 2012

One of the easiest and favourite past-times in racing is to knock jockeys.

Riders who hold the reins on horses carrying the hopes of punters are easy targets when their results end up being below expectations, but I venture to suggest that few punters really know the lengths some riders go to physically just so that we can all have our day out at the races.

Sure, seasoned punters can tell you that the majority of jockeys have to ‘waste’ continually to reach a required weight on race-day and that their daily intake of food and liquids has to be managed to a degree which would make any ordinary person’s diet look like a picnic in the park, but few can give you precise details of what is involved.

Forty-two time Group 1 winning jockey Larry Cassidy is the latest rider to reveal extraordinary behind the scene details of his life as a jockey. Writing in his weekly personal blog on horseracingonly Cassidy gave graphic insight into his on-going struggle with his weight.

“The other morning I got out of the sauna. I was laying on the floor. I was overheating. I still had three-quarters of a kilo to get off and I felt if someone had come in and shot me through the head, I would have been happier. That’s the way I felt because of the struggle with my weight.

“That’s how bad I felt laying on the floor. I was lying there with at towel over me and wrapped in plastic trying to keep sweating. At times like that you think like that.”

Now I know the unsympathetic will say that nobody forces anyone to become a jockey. They will say riders know what they sign up for and should toughen up and cope with the consequences of their career choice.

My point is they do just that … but, at times, there is a human side to their ‘unnatural’ existence which was aptly summed up by Cassidy.

Cassidy, of course, is not alone. Perhaps a more clinical and one of the best descriptions of what riders go through was given a few years ago by the late Stathi Katsidis who spoke to me shortly before his tragic death.

“Race days I need three to five hours for weight preparation before the races and two hours after the races for body recovery as well as weight preparation for the following day. My natural body weight is 58 to 60 kg.

“People see me riding 53 kg and think why can't he ride my horse this week at that weight. Like most jockeys my natural weight is ten percent higher than the riding weights. So all year round I stay on a sensible diet to keep my weight around 55-56 kg, then I sweat in the bath to the weight I have to ride.

“I lose 2 kg the night before the races and 1 to 2 kg the day of the races. You can only keep your body that low for so long.”

The stark discipline that jockeys have to follow doesn’t give them a free pass exempting them from criticism when they do not perform to the professional standard demanded of them … and neither should it.

But, like horses, jockeys are not machines. Sometimes I think we forget that and don’t give them credit enough for what they do achieve in difficult circumstances.

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