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- This article is about the sports occupation. For other meanings, see Jockey (disambiguation).
In sports, a jockey is one who rides horses in thoroughbred horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession.
Etymology
The word is by origin a diminutive of "jock," the Northern or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name "John," which is also used generically for "boy, fellow" (compare "Jack," "Dick"), at least since 1529.
A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning rickster, a "sharp," whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit, or "to do" a person out of something.
The current equestrian usage is found in John Evelyn's Diary, 1670, when it was clearly well known. George Sorrow's attempt to derive the word from the gypsy chukni, a heavy whip used by horse-dealing gypsies, has no foundation.
Horse racing
Jockeys are free agents, nominated by horse trainers to ride their horses in races, usually for a fee (which is paid regardless of the prize money the horse earns for a race) and a cut of the purse winnings.
Jockeys usually start out when they are young, riding trackwork in the morning for trainers, and entering the riding profession as an apprentice jockey. An apprentice jockey is known as a "bug boy" because the asterisk that follows the name in the program looks like a bug. All jockeys must be licensed and usually are not able to have an interest in a bet on a race. An apprentice jockey has a master, which is a horse trainer, and also is allowed to "claim" weight off the horse's back (if a horse were to carry 58 kg, and the apprentice was able to claim 3 kg, the horse would only have to carry 55 kg on its back). After a while, the jockey becomes a senior jockey and would usually develop relationships with trainers and individual horses.
Famous jockeys include Sir Gordon Richards, Willie Shoemaker, Eddie Arcaro, Laffit Pincay, Jr., Russell Baze, Lester Piggott, Frankie Dettori, Edgar Prado and Tony McCoy.
Various awards are given annually by organizations affiliated with the sport of thoroughbred racing in countries throughout the world. They include:
Camel jockeys
To replace child jockeys whose use had been deplored by human rights organizations, a camel race in Doha, Qatar for the first time featured robots at the reins. On July 13, 2005, workers fixed robotic jockeys on the backs of seven camels and raced the machine-mounted animals around a track. Operators controlled the jockeys remotely, signaling them to pull their reins and prod the camels with whips. *
Risk factors
Horse jockeying is a notoriously dangerous sport, with permanent, debilitating, and even life-threatening injuries being common. Chief among them include concussion, bone fracture, arthritis, trampling, and paralysis. Jockey insurance premiums remain among the highest of all professional sports.
Eating disorders (such as anorexia) are also very common among jockeys, as the athletes face extreme pressure to maintain unusually low (and specific) weights for men, sometimes within a five pound (2.3 kg) margin. The bestselling historical novel An American Legend chronicled the eating disorders of jockeys living in the first half of the Twentieth Century.
Sources and references
- "Jockey insurance measure hits snag," Kentucky.com. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/legislature/14156449.htm (accessed April 2, 2006)
- David Schmeichel, "Throwing up for a living - Bulimic jockeys common ... Going hungry," Winnepeg Sun. http://winsun.canoe.ca/News/FoodFright/2006/03/21/1497775-sun.html (accessed April 2, 2006)
- "Mandated Anorexia"
- Etymology Online
- "Mammals & Events: A Jockey's Hard Life". at PBS.org
See also
Sports occupations | Animal care occupations | Horse racing | Jockeys
"Jockey"