Jockey's putting themselves at risk....

Very good article from Racing Post on the eating habits of jockeys today:

The scourge that can
only lead to misery
Lee Mottershead on growing concerns for riders risking health to keep weight down

SOME call it bulimia. Others believe it is not. There is, however, widespread agreement from those in the know that ‘flipping’, the weight-control method of self-induced vomiting by jockeys, remains not only common but has also been adopted to a worrying extent by young Flat riders.

In last week’s Racing Post, jockey Mark Enright spoke frankly of his depression, smashing through the taboo that still prevents people opening up about mental health issues.

Those jockeys who purge their bodies of food have been similarly reluctant to admit publicly to a practice that has been labelled by some as a form of mental illness. Now, however, a jockey who flips is prepared to speak.

“I’ve spoken to doctors and nutritionists and am certain in my own mind it isn’t healthy,” says the well-known rider, who wishes to remain nameless.

“It can’t be healthy,” he adds. “Personally, though, I don’t think it’s a major health risk to me. I’m not worried. I’ve seen different levels of flipping and I just see it as a help to me.”

It has long been regarded as a form of help. Rewind through the decades and some of the sport’s most famous jockeys, then also able to use dehydrating diuretics, habitually made themselves sick in order to make a weight. A number of leading Flat riders, who compete in and win some of the sport’s biggest races, still do so with varying degrees of regularity.

There is nothing in racing’s rules to say they should not, but there is nevertheless some embarrassment among those who flip or have flipped. That sense of shame is not felt by those who smoke or spend an eternity in a hot sauna or bath in order to lose the odd pound.

“It’s a real challenge to get a handle on the frequency of flipping,” says BHA chief medical adviser Dr Jerry Hill. “It’s something jockeys won’t necessarily declare themselves, although if you talk to them most know someone who is doing it. Whether it’s one in 100 or one in ten, we don’t know.”

A survey carried out by the Professional Jockeys Association throws a little more light on the extent of flipping. Of the 48 riders prepared to answer if they were active flippers, 12 said yes.

From that, we should not extrapolate that 25 per cent of all jockeys are vomiting away their food intake. In Britain, the PJA believes this is a problem linked predominantly to southern-based Flat riders with apprentices increasingly following the lead of certain senior colleagues. In Ireland, a jockey coach describes flipping as “a huge issue”.

The irony is this growth in flipping, real or perceived, comes at a time when the sport is offering more nutritional advice and support to jockeys than ever before.

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Dr Jerry Hill: “It’s a challenge to get a handle on the frequency of flipping,”

The mechanics of flipping and the many side effects
What follows may not make for easy reading. It is important to understand, nonetheless.

Jockeys flip because it works. It can have negative side effects, but for those who need to reduce their weight in order to fulfil a riding commitment, it is viewed as highly effective. Indeed, in the US it is so accepted that many weighing rooms contain a special heaving bowl, into which jockeys vomit. That is not the case here, but that does not mean changing room toilets are not used for the same purpose.

There are jockeys who flip only when needing to ride at a particularly light weight. For others, it is a daily requirement, with one insider suggesting certain individuals can repeat the process five or six times a day.

To make flipping easier, jockeys eat food that is not stodgy, like curry, rice or sweets, often accompanied by large quantities of fizzy drink. Some will gorge themselves, as a key attraction of flipping is that by rapidly feasting, the brain is made to believe the stomach has been satisfied, even if the consumed food is brought back up very quickly. Indeed, jockeys do need to act quickly and will seek to make themselves sick within around 30 minutes of eating.

As such, some when travelling will eat at one service station and ‘go for a flip’ at the next. Although fingers are generally used to make that process easier, those accustomed to the act can make themselves heave simply by positioning themselves over a toilet bowl. When finished, they can even find themselves a pound lighter than before they ate.

Brushing the teeth straight after flipping helps to protect them from stomach acid that has been forced into contact with parts of the body not designed for exposure to a substance that can cause tissue damage.

Hill says: “There is no doubt flipping gives you an abnormal approach to food that may translate to a more formal eating disorder. About a third of jockeys who employ ‘traditional’ weight-control methods will have changes in their mental health, with a number at the depressive end of the spectrum. If they then follow an appropriate diet that often reverses.”

The list of other potential risks is long. It includes dental decay, gastro-oesophageal reflux, oesophageal ulcers that may increase the risk of cancer and reduced function of the sphincter (muscle valve) at the bottom of the oesophagus so unwanted vomiting becomes more likely. There is vulnerability to the opposite problem, with acid in the oesophagus causing scarring and then problems swallowing. There is a chance of oesophageal tears causing blood to be vomited. Through the mechanism of dehydration flipping can also, in the short term, drop a person’s blood pressure causing dizziness, fainting and renal impairment. Dehydration impacts speed of thinking, reaction time and muscular strength.

Most of those issues are reversible. Some are not.

Nutritional advice: fire up the metabolism and eat

The relationship between jockeys and food has become a hot topic.

The PJA has its own nutrition team, albeit one restricted to working off just £20,000 in industry funding. It offers cookery advice, produces nutrition guidelines, undertakes racecourse visits and arranges consultations. There is evidence its work has proved useful to several riders.

Many jockeys have also tried the ground-breaking methods advocated by Dr George Wilson, a post-doctoral research officer at Liverpool John Moores University, who has worked with numerous enthusiastic disciples, including Jim Crowley and Franny Norton. Moreover, last April LJMU and the BHA launched a major PhD study into jockey nutrition and wellbeing, while a bold new Jockey Training and Development Strategy will have welfare at its heart.

Wilson found a jockey’s average body fat is 12 per cent, low for the majority of the population but in excess of the eight per cent for elite boxers and the seven to ten per cent for footballers. Lowering that 12 per cent body fat average to eight or nine per cent could deliver a loss of two to three kilos. To achieve that, Wilson prescribes a 30-minute early morning run to fire up the metabolism. Thereafter, he advises jockeys to stoke the metabolism by eating three meals and two snacks a day, prepared with food low in bad carbohydrates and high in protein. Do all that, he says, and you can simultaneously increase the amount you consume and reduce your weight.

Unfortunately, that has not worked for everyone.

The jockey who flips: ‘For some it’s the only way’

One rider who has failed to benefit from expert guidance is the successful current jockey who is prepared, anonymously, to talk about his own ongoing experiences with flipping and his assessment of why it remains an issue.

“I’ve seen three nutritionists and followed a fitness programme, but it had no effect on me,” he says.

“I feel the PJA has done a good job in educating young jockeys, but nutritionists can only do so much – in the end, it’s a personal choice. There is a support system but you can’t help someone who doesn’t want help. If what the nutritionists advise works for you, that’s great. If it doesn’t, you either have to give up or try something else.

“There are jockeys who are branded as flippers. Others do it without anyone noticing. It’s been very common with the elite jockeys, but nobody has ever taken notice of it. Now a few people are pointing it out and it’s a big problem.

“With younger jockeys taller than was once the case it has become more popular. The average Flat jockey would now be 5ft 5in or 5ft 6in. Naturally, very few of them can walk around at 8st 7lb or 8st 8lb. Flipping is the lazy option for some jockeys. For others it’s the only way they can ride at certain weights.

“I think a lot of the older jockeys have grown out of doing it and don’t use it to control their weight anymore. I could think of four off the top of my head who would say privately they used to do it but now don’t. Some older jockeys who don’t struggle with their weight may see a problem with it, but you only have to remind them of some of the great jockeys who had well-known weight troubles and they shut their mouths.”

The rider adds: “You have to ask, is it bulimia? Personally, I don’t think it is. An alcoholic has to drink every day. Someone with bulimia has to regurgitate what they’ve eaten every day. That’s not the same as flipping. For me it’s an occasional thing. You really need to understand the mechanics of someone’s stomach and I’m not a doctor. If I ever saw blood it would be a different story.”

The jockey also highlights the crucial copycat nature to flipping.

“It’s a tough subject,” he says. “It’s difficult to tell an apprentice not to flip when he sees his idol is controlling his weight that way and having massive success.”

The jockey coach: ‘There is bulimia among jockeys’
Warren O’Connor was one of Ireland’s leading Flat jockeys, winning four Group 1 races in 1991 and 1992 on Kooyonga. He also became addicted to alcohol and cocaine. On top of all that, he flipped.

O’Connor has subsequently turned his life around, regaining his health and becoming Ireland’s first jockey coach. He echoes a view expressed last year by 6ft Flat jockey George Baker, who maintains his weight using good diet, long runs and hot baths.

Interviewed for The Times last year by the late Alan Lee, Baker said: “I’ve never done it. It doesn’t appeal to me. I can’t believe it’s good for your health and I would rather pack up than go down that route. From what I’ve seen, once you start doing it you can’t stop.”

O’Connor agrees, but believes flipping is too gentle a term for what takes place. “There is bulimia among jockeys and it’s a mental health issue,” he says. “I know people say jockeys only flip because of the job but, believe me, when you’ve started flipping it’s very hard to stop.

Your body ends up not being able to hold on to food. You get into a state of mind where your brain is telling you that you have to get rid of the food you’ve eaten.

“It’s a huge issue. I flipped for 15 years and know what it’s like. In the racing industry at the moment it’s a bigger addiction than even drink or drugs. When the younger generation see senior jockeys doing it they follow suit. It is still big out there and it happens in weighing rooms.”

Offering encouragement for the future, O’Connor adds: “The Turf Club’s senior medical officer Adrian McGoldrick has done a very good job trying to clean up the flipping over the last couple of the years. I’m hoping it’s starting to go out the window. I have all my apprentices seeing dieticians, which is so important. If we can get the kids on proper diets when they’re young it will cut out the flipping.”

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Paul Struthers: "We need to find a way to make them realise there are safer, healthier routes that will improve their weight and performance"

PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
PJA concern: ‘A sudden and increasing prevalence of flipping’

The BHA and PJA do not equate flipping with bulimia. Both, however, are keen to reduce the number of riders who see food as their nemesis.

“Historically, as the regulator, we perhaps didn’t acknowledge the existence of flipping as much as we should have done,” says the BHA’s Dr Jerry Hill.

“Flipping and bulimia are two separate things that get bracketed together because the mechanism, self-induced vomiting, is the same,” he adds, while conceding: “Warren O’Connor will see it from one angle. I’ll see it from another. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

“For the vast majority of jockeys it’s a tool to control their weight – and it’s a very poor choice. It reduces athletic performance, reaction time and strength. There is also good evidence it has an effect on mood.”

PJA chief executive Paul Struthers says: “The PJA nutrition team continues to do an excellent job off a very limited budget, and we’re delighted Jerry Hill is so supportive in this area and undertaking good work with the team at LJMU. Everyone recognises much more needs to be done, and is being done, through our team, the Jockey Training and Development Strategy and the work of Jerry and LJMU.

“That’s particularly important with the sudden and increasing prevalence of flipping, almost exclusively among young Flat jockeys in the south, which is a worrying development.

“They are risking serious long-term physical and mental health problems. We need to find a way to make them realise there are safer, healthier routes that will improve their weight and performance before the risks become a reality.”

More could be done to tackle worrying problem
The desire to help jockeys nutritionally and to dissuade them from flipping must be welcomed. There are, however, other things that could be done, such as a further raising of the weights allocated to horses on the Flat.

Like people in general, jockeys are getting taller, bigger and therefore heavier. To win the ongoing battle with the scales they have always flipped and it is possible some, if the rules allow it, always will.

We should, though, be concerned if those beginning their careers are quickly becoming converts to a practice medical experts insist has significant health risks.

The vast majority of people outside the sport would be shocked and disturbed at what some talented young adults feel they must do in order to race-ride. Those inside the sport and its followers should be equally troubled.



http://www.racingpost.com/news/hors...ay/2029793/top/#newsArchiveTabs=last7DaysNews

 

I don't know if he's the jockey in the article, but I know of one high profile young jockey who is definitely a "flipper" - a friend of mine witnessed it at a dinner party last year.

 

How many naturally lightweight jockeys would that finish?

 

Scrub my comments, guess it's all covered, more or less, in above article. I would hate to see the minimum weight raised to 9-stone, but something must tbe done, bulimia nervosa is a very serious condition.

 

I have to agree with Oddie as it is just so obvious, I feel you could do it by increments until the situation found itself resolved. I would first up the weight by half a stone and see how that affected the situation, but I would happily make the minimum weight 8-11. tomorrow I would imagine the sigh of relief would be heard all around Newmarket. I understand that there would be some detriment felt by some naturally light weight jockeys but I am sure many of these would welcome being able to put on half a stone without worrying about turning down rides. We also know that a good jockey is not hindered by being light so were they naturally light there is ne reason they could not get rides if talented. Andre Atzeni rode at 8-2 today and he is one of the best in the country, he isn't just getting rides because he is light.

What it comes down to is that the current low weight it is not natural nor healthy for a grown male adult and is still reasonably light for a female. I recognise that I am a little taller than the usual jockey at 6ft and overweight by about half a stone at 13.5stone but I have to say if I imagined myself at 9 stone I would look like I had died. When considering jocks such as Richard Hughes and Joseph O Brian I just don't know how they have managed it. I feel sure it must have had a say in Hughsie giving up the saddle, fortunately he would not have needed to continue financially as others would. Race riding is dangerous enough as it is without being half starved when doing it.


This issue with weight is also a problem in Boxing as some of the low weight classes demand exactly the same regime that Jockeys put themselves through.

 

I must say after reading the article however I was reminded how one jockey could be learnt from by others with regard jockeys putting themselves at risk which is the title of this post. I keep admiring Jamie Spencer's consideration of the dangers of race riding and tipping my hat to him. In most races you will see Jamie so aware of the risks that he will place himself at the back of the group of horses every time and only come around the outside and ensure he only gets close to those horses running fastest after the line when everyone else is slowing down. I feel Jamie does not get the recognition he deserves for his contribution to Horse and jockey safety.

 

Thinking outside the box Oddy, I reckon we should do away with jockeys altogether and horses should be trained to go round a track on their own (ie like greyhounds). They're under starters orders, here comes the carrot, and they're off.

 

Apologies, NH racing is not an issue here, my mistake.

 

Should have left it in Swanny

 

Yes Ron, shame it does not apply. Some of those old jumpers are clever rascals, they know every trick in the trade?

 

Or you go the way of camel racing and have robotic jockeys (as opposed to the small boys they used to use).

 

even more scope for fiddling. In race betting must be very profitable for some

 

That Robot AE946, what a fiddling son of a bitch he is, that's the last time I'll back a camel with him on.