Columnist Ralph Siraco: Minimum weights finally raised to 116

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Feb. 21, 2005 | 8:55 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.

The California Horse Racing Board decided last Thursday to do what the country's racing jurisdictions should have done a dozen years ago. They voted unanimously to raise the scale of minimum weights that horses must carry in races to 116 pounds from 112 -- most of it in the form of a jockey. Hooray. So, they finally got what all of us have known. Any parent will tell you that little Joey or Betty will sprout taller than mom and dad before puberty. Each generation gets bigger and bigger. Period. Jockeys, therefore, by evolution, have too.

But if the California Horse Racing Board thinks it did something revolutionary for riders, its better look at its record books at the scales. Jockeys have been coming to work at California tracks for decades riding overweight according to the existing assigned levels. Every day. Day in and day out, for years.

As a former track announcer, I didn't see a day in which the bulk of the "late changes" announcement didn't consist of the overweights by riders scheduled to compete on the card. The scale of 116 will now allow jockeys to ride at the assigned package and may also give an allowance for some jockeys to actually eat a meal for dinner and not an airline-sized bag of peanuts.

Of course, the new scale may also open the door for bigger jockeys to come in a few pounds overweight at the new levels.

It is no secret that the majority of riders diet, some dangerously so, and reduce in sweat boxes in the jockeys room -- to lose temporary water weight -- to make the assignments for the afternoon competition. They are also expected to guide thousand-pound horses traveling 40 miles an hour perched on a 16-ounce saddle steering their trusty equine partner through moving traffic with a pair of one-inch leather straps -- known as reins -- connected to a bit in the horses mouth. And do it in concert, on the same page as what the horse may desire. All this from 116 pounds of manpower. Finesse takes on a new meaning.

Two pounds may be no more than a Hungry Man TV dinner to most, but the 32 ounces it represents to jockeys could be the difference between happiness and starvation.

The most famous jockey of our time battled weight all his life. Laffit Pincay Jr. rode his entire career overweight. He struggled for decades with fad diets and diet pills until he found a nutritional balance he could live with. He still remains the world's winningest jockey several years after his forced retirement.

To put in perspective what the weight issue means, there is a great story told by Hall Of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas about Pincay's weight-watching days. It's a story that may very well be hauntingly familiar throughout the jockey colonies from coast to coast.

Lukas recalls a cross-country flight he and Pincay took for a big race engagement. They sat first class in adjoining seats. When the stewardess came by to take their dinner order Lukas asked for a big juicy steak. Pincay said she could give his to Lukas as well. When Lukas was served his steak, Pincay requested a glass of water and one of those fist-sized bags of peanuts. While Lukas devoured his and part of Pincay's steak, Laffit took one peanut from the bag and split it in half. He chewed the half-peanut until it was silt in his mouth, then drank the glass of water. After Lukas had cleaned up dessert, Pincay took the remaining half-peanut and chewed that one into vapor as well. A peanut and a glass of water was all Pincay had. One peanut! Lukas reminded everybody of Pincay's immense discipline.

The planned rule change is not immediate. Nor is it a slam-dunk. Now it must weather a 45-day public comment period where at least some track racing secretaries will testify that raising the minimum weight by two pounds will wreak havoc on their ability to assign weights to horses in handicap races. Of course, what they won't say is there are very few jockeys who could make the light weight even after it is assigned. And certainly none of the top jockey owners would want to ride in big races.

In the spring, the vote will again come before the board for further review. I just hope they get Pincay and Lukas to testify. They could tell them that two pounds is more than just peanuts to most jockeys.

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