The Brookhaven leader., 1891-07-16
A Jockeys TRAINING.
The Famous McLaughlln Tells How ne
Gets Down to weight.

The Famous Mclaughlin Tells How ne
Gets Down to weight.
How do famous jockeys live while
training? What do they do TO reduce
their weight in riding? How are the
various hours of each day employed2
These and many like questions are FREE
quently asked by large class of race
goers, but never have been answered
rightly. The public generally believes
that when il is necessary 70 take off
some of the surplus flesh the jockey re-
sorts to n heavy dose of medicine or
sleeps for an evening or two under q
ton of blankets. Hence the following
account of how Mclaughlin, the noted
knight of the pigskin, reduces down to
one hundred and fifteen pounds will be
found interesting to all, but instructive
to those holding erroneous notions on
the subject. "At o'clock in the morn
ing" as the old song has it, Mclaughlin
is called by his valet and begins the
day. A cold water bath is the first
thing in order, and this is followed by
a vigorous and thorough rubbing down.
Thence he goes to the track and spends
about two hours on horseback and walk
ing exercise. The morning he has horses
to work he will devote all his time
to them, but on the off days he takes to
pedestrianism. Not till 8 o'clock does
he have breakfast, and then it is a mod
est repast, consisting of two lean chops,
dry toast and tea without sugar. On
this foundation for the physical man he
dons his sweaters. These weigh no less
Ie In them
he runs and walks a distance of seven
miles. Dripping with perspiration,
which runs down him in streams, and
ready to drop from sheer exhaustion, he
returns to his rooms more dead than
alive. After being stripped as quickly
as possible he is rubbed down with all
the latest appliances known for that
purpose.
But this is by no means the end OF his
ordeal Upon being rubbed down he is
put into the blankets, and, when cooled
off is taken out of them and given an
other bath. He then gets another rub
bling. When entirely dry he is again
subjected to one more thorough rub
bling, this time with a body dressing.
BY this time he wishes he never was
born, and as he is coolly contemplating
speedy suicide, he is allowed to assume
his ordinary attire and saunter around
for e BOD part of the remainder of the
day. Frequently, however, he exercises
for good portion of this leisure time
with the boxing-gloves, foils, dumb
bells, Indian clubs and other sporting
paraphernalia, with which his rooms
are adorned. He is very fond of these
implements, and manages to derive
much amusement from exercising with
them, as well as knocking off an oc-
casional pound of flesh 10y the
zest with which he enters into
the several pastimes represented
by them. His dinner, if the
slight meal he takes at o'clock can be
dignified with such a name, is not quite
as liberal in character and amount as
breakfast even, while his supper is
lighter than either. Sugar, butter, po-
tatoes, soup, fats of all kinds, and, in
fact, every article of food that has any
tendency to increase ones bulk, is
scdulously eschewed. Though fonder
of coffee he drinks tea, because it has
been advised as conducive to attain his
object of making himself thinner.
What solid stuff he does eat is such
that will give the most strength for the
quantity partaken of.
When supper is over there is no sit
ting around until midnight in ill-venti-
lated rooms, playing cards, smoking
and drinking, or any similar way of
passing an evening. Instead, a walk
in tho Oman air is taken he the weather
unproptious or not, and at 10 o'clock
Mclaughlin is once more in his bed,
enjoying good sound sleep after his
days hard work. From the above it
will be seen that, while the days of
fashionable jockeys bathing in the
stable bucket are over, the life of such,
even nowadays, is not always the sine
cure and one long round of pleasure
that many imagine. Like everything
else. America is advancing in the
treatment of jockeys, both by their en-
ployers and themselves. But the sue
cessful ones find that to continue to be
successful they must keep up, of their
own accord, even a stricter discipline
than that enforced upon them in other
times. For all that, these are the days
of luxury for jockeys, like every one
else.-St Louis bc-Democrat.