Jockeys' code of silence re fasting, vomiting is slowly being broken

[matcom]

<snip>

Tucked inside the jockeys' room at Hollywood Park are quarters of private suffering.

In back is a large, glass-windowed sauna, known in the riders' vernacular as the hot box, or sweat box.

There, jockeys wring water and pounds from their bodies, sweating in stifling temperatures for up to three hours a day, some of them working out on a step machine as they swelter.

"I've seen some guys pull seven, eight pounds," Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith said. "That's ridiculous."

Signs posted in the bathroom area suggest another method of weight control: "No heaving in this stall."

One, however, is reserved for that purpose, with a large basin installed at a height convenient for regurgitating.

"You go in a stall and there's someone in the next stall having to heave," said Smith, one of the fortunate few who can maintain a weight of about 113 pounds mostly through diet and exercise, but who occasionally uses other methods. "It's just a way of life in there. We almost joke about it sometimes, like, 'Don't eat the chicken.' It's sad, really."

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-sp-jockeys21jul21.story

[GOPisEvil]

1. Goodness...that's just horrible.

I think weight limits should be increased. Even 5 lbs would help.

I like horse racing, but I don't like people having to kill themselves to participate.

[SkipNewarkDE]

2. I guess this isn't well-known in public

But this has been a fact of life known for years and years in the racing industry. Laura Hillenbrand's book on Seabiscuit had a pretty good description of how it was years ago, and a lot of it hasn't changed since then.

[calico1]

3. I read Laura Hillenbrand's book too.

Its shocking what some of these jockeys did to their bodies. I guess the less you weigh the better because its less weight on the horse and it can go faster, so it gives the jockey a better chance at the purse. Plus there are weight limits that you can't go over. Don't remember if it was in the book or an article on the movie "Seabiscuit" but the real life jockey Gary Stevens, who played the famous jockey of that time, George Woolf said that one of the best parts of filming the movie was that he got to eat normally. These guys practially starve themselves while they are competing.

[GOPisEvil]

4. Horses can only carry so much weight by rule....

...which includes rider, and his equipment. Sometimes, it is as low as 114lbs. The bigger races allow up to 126lbs.

[ChoralScholar]

5. sounds like to me a pretty good reason

NOT to put rider, equipment, etc.. on a horse.