European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 3, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                31 risk jockeying to lose weight by Pohla Smith or led press International a t the Core of the sport of Kings lies a sell imposed misery thai racing s owners Andi Rainors do no want to see. Fans Are largely unaware of and Masl jockeys cannot escape ii is represented by a sound belter suited 1o Bach alleys and washrooms than to a sport known Lof its riches Beauly and Power. The sound becomes As familiar to jockeys As a whinny at the command riders up T Vinee Avalo heard it the Day to reported Lor his first of Ole Sonal lace ii is the sound of someone vomiting. The first Day i went into the jocks room to Nde. I was a 19 year old kid. I did l know  remembers Avalo. 34. Now the clerk of Scales at Arlington Park and the paddock judge at Hawthorne race course i was irom the cily 01 Chicago and of lace trick was new to me 1 walked in and i of Rel to the bathroom and i heard its noise and i ran Oul and i turned to the clerk of Scales i think somebody s sick in the bathroom Well everybody Lell out. And 1hcy got a big joke out of c and to this Day i still Don t understand  what Avalo could not understand irid never could bring Hirsoh to use is one Otho Lime honoured methods jockeys employ to Selch of maintain their required weigh it is a skill passed irom Veteran to apprentice one Gerie Talton to another retired jockey r l baud Tor c i ample used it much of his 45-Ysar career and Laughl Illo his rider sons. Bobby also now Iii red and e t. Or Eddie who rides in new York jockeys Call ii shipping or heaving " the medical trim is bulimia "  society would Label it sick Bui Jocko i live apart in the cloistered Community of Iho american thoroughbred racing which demands they weigh no More than 110 to 11s pounds and Doorn i care How they do to ii just weighs them before and alter each race to make sure that they do sumo riders be new York Journeyman Mike Venezia and 1966 eclipse award Champion pal Day say they make wig he naturally Ealing pretty much whal they want when they want Bui for a Large number of Iho Unildo slates Appi Jimale 3,500 licensed riders making weight is s round the clock Bailie one they fight Wilh every weapon available Horn Low calorie Diels to near Sla Vatson. Lion sweating in rubber suits to chemically induced dehydration. Irom occasional com Ling to chronic bulimia they last Lor a Day of More Al a time or subsist on one daily child Steed meal of Lish or Chicken and salad they dram the bodies of vital fluids and electrolytes Wilh laxatives and diuretics Liko la six a d us used to treat Harl patients and horses diagnosed As bleeders they Lake diet pills and in Ine years when ample Latifie loaded appetite suppressants were commonly proscribed some of them Gol addicted they sweat or hours Al a time hoi Bones Sloam looms saunas or whirlpools healed to Lompra Lureo As High As 120degiecs. Or they wrap themselves in layers of cloth of and sit in healed cars or run foe Miles Between their morning exercise rides and their afternoon races they Leach their Slomach Muscles to reverse themselves so icy can hip their food and liquid. Or. Should they find themselves unable to team thai skill they gag themselves by drinking vinegar or soap suds or by shoving lingers or paper towels Down then throats. Some become so starved or the taste of food they become classic bulimics who Gorge 10 to 15 pounds of Lood at a Lime Belore heading to the nearest heaving bowl racing s equivalent of the roman com Elodum to purge in. Every jocks room in the country has a hearing bowl every jocks room in the country has a hot Box says new York near Richard Migliore. At the Meadowlands. There s probably the Best one any place it s got a sink so you can Wash up right Shete 1 mean every jockey s room in the country in doing All the things say Ealing decider specialists ride hrs risk chronic depression digestive disorders and loss of tooth. They also can suffer electrolyte imbalances thai could Lead in weakness and fainting spells which in turn in they occurred on Hack could cause serious injury or death. Or Joseph Sawicki. Physician Lor the new York racing association says he has tried so Long and so unsuccessfully to warn riders Ohhet risks that he has nearly Given up you can t talk to them in the first place they re going to interrupt you and do whal they Damn Well please anyway Sawicki says they go into the hot Box Iney lose by tween three and four pounds. They just lop Down Ai they can t ride because their electrolytes Are gone. And there Are other methods they do. La six and vomiting. I in to Tell them that one of these limes they Are going to gel bad gastric Hemon Hage from bulimia.,. It s a disgrace. That bulimia and the hoi Box is the worst part of it. A s reached the Point where i Don t care any More Sawicki adds. Lei them do whal 1hey want. You can t Force them to a anything. They come in they pass out i Vegol to take them off their scheduled mounts jockeys could be risking More than bad moods. Piuac Mutphy died la 1898 of the rigor of a  i proft titon Mif if i a taunt Long ton. Stomach problems and loss Teeth specialists suspect bul cannot yet prove tha Long Lerm eating disorders can Lead to serious Perham life threatening illnesses such As heart and vascular disease their study of Ealing disorders is a Young. Incomplete discipline. Americans preoccupation with weight is a real reel new phenomenon but in is nothing new in racing neither Are the inherent risks it s the deadly part of the game says new York Valet to Carr a Lormor jockey and fall of of App relic Dennis can. The great English jockey Fred Archer depressed t the earlier death of his Wile his weight problem and poor health stemming in part from his dieting and purging Shol and killed himself in 1886 Al age 29 who suffering irom Faver indeed delirium in 1b96, Isaac Murphy the Drol jockey to win three Kentucky derbies and the Best percentage rider in history died at age 35. The official cause was pneumonia bul thoroughbred historian Bernard Livingston writes thai Murphy really succumbed to to Rigours of a lifelong Bailie to maintain the Low weight required of his profession " How Many jockeys have a weight problem1? that depends on who s counting though their regimens Are nol classified inform tit they re not exact in Public knowledge either. Some he refuse to Lalk about weight others do so reluctantly i Only in return Lor a Promise of anonymity. And no jockey defines a tight problem in quite t same Way As another. People who say they have no weight prob Ems Well a lot of times they do and to them it s not a problem compared to the Solhei Guys says new Yoi jockey Chris an Ley whose own methods include Soi shipping dieting and the use Olliie hot Box. Bobby said for example heaved every Day of his 17-year career bul he says i never Hud no weight problem to Baird. Someone with a weight problem was someone who had to sweat Oil weight or strut to vomit or give up All mounts except those Weighley at the highest end of the scale. Part of that reticence is you re dealing with trainers and trainers Don t really like to think you re breaking your Tail reducing says Eddie Donally. We Rode and reduced by heaving Lor 19 years Bel he settled into a new career As Lur Wriler or Iho Dalit morning news. They think you re going to be weak Doii ally my so m s kind of hiding in from Iho trainers. A lot of Lia Incis Don t even to to ride heaving  Donally estimates that the vast majority of the jockeys to Rode Wilh before his 1961 retirement reduced to some Enlen 01 another. And he adds i think 25 to 30 percent of the jockeys were really hardcore  likewise. An Ley estimates Ite vast majority of the Tegu a new York jockeys Are involved in some sort t weight reduction or control. It s funny Whon you really 51 and think about the Guys who Don  Alloy says Thyra might be five i the room out of 45 it s a Little in of a  considering children can no longer ride Al parimutuel tracks jockeys must be 16 to be licensed and Iho parameters of the american thoroughbred scale of weights Alloy s and Donnelly s estimates Are not surprising. The scale established in the 19lh Colury by the jockey club starts around 96 pounds and. Theoretically increases to in mily bul a horse is rare assigned fewer than 1w pounds or More than 130. Most Cany assigned weights in the Range of 110 to 1 most states will allow a jockey logo overweight up to five pounds Wilh the Miner s permission som trainers grudgingly give in Lor proven jockeys. Bul if a rider wants enough mounts to make a dec living to Musl keep his weigh in Lack at no More in 113 to 115 pounds. Tack a rider s boots Silks Saddle and Saddle pad weighs three to our pour so most jockeys iry to slay Between 109 and 113 stripped there Are no height requirements. One would exc Palau the stars and stripes sunday