HALF THE RACE IS OUT OF YOUR CONTROL
(Part 6)
9----INJURED JOCKEYS
Do you know how many jockeys on your home circuit ride while hurt?
I’ll take a wild guess and say every one of them!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that 100% of your jockey colony is hurt
at any given point in time. But what I am saying, is that every jockey on your
circuit at one time or another will ride knowing that he is not 100% sound and
unable to offer his best.
Once in a while you can spot these situations if you are awake and paying attention,
but most other times you can not. Consider the following.
The most recognizable situation comes about whenever a jockey comes back far
too soon from a serious injury.
If his mishap gets written up in your local newspaper or in the Daily Racing
Form, it will usually state that he or she is expected to be out for 6 weeks,
8 weeks, 10 weeks or whatever.
The expected recovery time stated in the newspaper is not relevant. What’s
important is the actual time that it takes for the injured jockey to return
to the saddle. If he comes back as scheduled, he’s probably fully healed or
close to it. If he’s early, he’s most likely not 100%.
It’s been said that pound for pound, jockeys are the best conditioned athletes
in the world.
I’ve never subscribed to that antiquated theory. Furthermore, I seriously doubt
that you could get any competent doctor to endorse such a ridiculous theory.
Granted, jockeys are superbly conditioned sport figures, but are we to actually
believe that they are in better shape than football, basketball or hockey players?
I doubt it!
Most likely this antiquated myth came about because nearly all jockeys miraculously
return from their specific injuries much faster than expected. Football players
can’t seem to do this. Neither can hockey players or basketball players!
So how do jockeys accomplish this?
Do jockeys have better doctors? Do jockeys possess better recuperative powers?
Are jockeys intrinsically more healthy and in better shape than other athletes?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, they’ve been fooling you for
many years and they continue to do so to this very day.
The only reason that jockeys return to their sport faster than any other type
of athlete is the fear of losing their business.
They don’t have better doctors. They don’t have any mystical recuperative powers.
And with their stringent and restrictive diets to maintain their riding weights,
I can assure you that they are positively not any healthier than other athletes
on non-restrictive diets. In fact if anything, they are less healthy than most
athletes because of their diets!
When Laffit Pincay was on his successful quest to break Willie Shoemaker’s
win record, a local newspaper journalist once asked him why he continued to
accept mounts in 8K and 10K claiming races? With his riding tenure, didn’t he
know that these cheap horses were more likely to break down during a race and
potentially put him in the hospital. Laffit’s reply was an honest one that hit
you right between the eyes. He fired back that “you can’t win races sitting
in the jockey’s room”!
This is exactly what goes thru the mind of every single injured jockey when
he sits on the sidelines waiting to heal. He can’t fulfill riding engagements
sitting in the jockey’s room or sitting at home. What’s more, he doesn’t have
any guarantees that another jockey won’t take over some or all of the business
that he had before his misfortune.
So what does he do? He prematurely returns to riding after “getting by” the
track doctor by saying that he’s no longer in pain and feels 200% better.
When doing this he might keep his business intact, but he rarely wins until
fully healed.
Since I’m always in the paddock before a race taking copious physicality notes
on horses, I’ve often spotted jockeys that were quite obviously not 100% physically
correct. It might be the way that they walk or the fact that they’re sporting
an Ace bandage on one of their wrists.
Whenever I spot these jockey negatives, it is either right after a spill where
they didn’t take any downtime or soon after they return from a more serious
injury.
Another way that you can learn about jockey injuries is by being lucky enough
to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
Some years ago at Santa Anita I was walking past Gary Stevens’ agent when he
remarked to another guy next to him that Gary took a nasty spill during morning
workouts and injured his right wrist. He further stated that Gary was going
to ride anyway.
Stevens had 4 mounts that afternoon, to include a 9-5 morning line favorite
in the 8th race that I initially had planned to bet. I watched Stevens struggle
thru his first 3 rides of the afternoon and I do mean struggle! It was obvious
to me that he was merely “going thru the motions” and was far from 100%. I also
noted that whenever he whipped a horse, it was only with his left hand.
When the 8th race rolled around, I knew that I had a bit of “proprietary information”
that few others possessed. Gary would be atop a runner that was the type of
horse that had to be kept to task the entire length of the stretch. He would
have to whip both left-handed and right-handed to win the race! That just wasn’t
going to happen! I decided to pass the race!
I have to credit Stevens. Even though he was hurt and in pain, he gave it everything
and tried his best. He even attempted to encourage his mount right-handed when
it was called for, but dropped his whip when he struck his horse the first time.
He finished a well-beaten 4th.
As mentioned above, I was very lucky that afternoon to overhear his agent’s
conversation and saved myself a bad bet.
But most times, we are not privy to such information. At one time or another
all of us wager on horses piloted by injured jockeys.
This situation surely ranks up there with other aforementioned scenarios to
potentially make a portion of some races out of our control.
(Continued in PART 7 of HALF THE RACE IS OUT OF YOUR CONTROL)
NOTE: Joe's articles will return after the Del Mar
meet on or about 09/14/04
© Joe Takach 2004 |
