The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-25
JOCKEYS MUST KEEP TRAINING.
Fat People Are Not Suited to the Task OF
Riding Races,

From the Chicago Chronicle
Everyone who has visited a race track
mas doubtless noted the fact that all
jockeys are small men--lightweights
they are called How these men keep
slender year after year is a puzzle to
the uninitiated, yet this result is at
tanned only by persistent and long
continued self-denial. The only time
when professional rider can really
venture to enjoy himself is in winter,
during which period he puts on, per-
maps, from rs to 80 pounds of flesh
All this has to come off, and come off
quickly, as soon as the first days of
spring herald the approach of the fat
racing season. A man who underst lands
MS business can throw off 80 pounds
of superfiuous tissue in 20 days. This
ton is known in turf talk as
reducing"
reducing is both an unpleasant and
a dangerous ordeal especially when
carried out too rapidly. Cases have
been known where a jockey, anxious
to ride favorite horse for a partcu-
lar race, has accomplished a reduction
OF seven pounds within "a hours. Sue 4
reducing" as this is, of course, simply
playing with death, and persistence in
it has consigned many a clever rider to
premature grave.
Different Jockeys adopt various meth
DDS of reducing" One of them used
to spend entire days in his favorite
Turkish bath, eating nothing mean
while but a little dry toast and drink
ing every half hour or so a steaming
glass of hot water Favored With gin,
in order to increase the perspira ton.
Another walks about for hours en-
Veloped in heavy horse cloths, his
usual diet during this period consist
ing of pint of champagne and slice
of dry toast after each walk. One of
the best known of them has related
how in his earlier days he used to set
out Immediately after breakfast clothed
in Ave or six vests, three coats and as
many pairs of trousers, and, after in
dulging in a brisk siX-mile walk, spend
the rest of the morning in galloping at
top speed, changing his mount as often
as necessary.
Even more heroic methods have often
to be adopted. A certain famous jockey
once clothed himself in close upon
three-quarters of a hundredweight of
horse cloths and walked as hard as he
could go a distance of six miles. Th s
feat he repeate three times within the
"a hours, making is miles in all. and
during the period he ate nothing what
ever. On being weighed he was found
to have lost II pounds. Still another
once relieved himself of seven pounds
of flesh in single walk, but the walk
covered 40 miles and lasted nine hours.
His diet on this occasion was hard
biscuit purchased at roadside public
house and a poached egg served in
vinegar. At another time, he ate moth
ing but an occasional apple for eight
consecutive dayG in order to reduce
himself
One of the gamest jockeys on record,
who rode and won a race with broken
leg, used to live for days in. front, of
an enormous open fire. eating nracti-
cally nothing ard drinking huge guam
titles of SIENNA tea. The only relaxation
he permitted himself was in scraping
the perspirat,on off the uncovered por-
tons of his person after the manner
in which a race horse is scrapeu, using
a small horn for the purpose.
1t is pitiful to see jockey STRIP after
having undergone a really severe re
ducing." He looks as if all his strsng h
had left him, while the skin is so trans
parent that every vein shows through
it as through covering of glass. Cruel
it is. in a sense. of course, but it has to
be done. The ultimate destination of
perhaps hundreds of thousands of dol
lars in bets and purses may depend
upon few ounces too much or too little
flesh being upon a Jockeys bones at
given moment.