Jockeying for the right position

A team of London-based researchers has proved what many horseplayers the world over refuse to believe: Jockeys actually can make and have made thoroughbred racehorses run faster.

Their study found that riders athletically and artfully isolate themselves from the movements of their horses, so that the horse supports the jockey’s body weight without having to physically move the jockey through each cyclical stride.

It is why race times over the last century have improved 5 percent to 7 percent in the United States and Britain, the study said.

“There’s a reason people pay Frankie Dettori a lot of money to ride their horses,” said Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London. He is a co-author of the article ‘Modern Riding Style Improves Horse Racing Times,’ which was published in the journal Science last week.

The study’s findings, however, are unlikely to elevate the stature of Dettori, Europe’s most sought-after jockey, or America’s leading riders like Garrett Gomez and Kent Desormeaux among hard-core horseplayers or casual fans. For as long as people have been pitting fast horses against one another, they have admired a jockey’s athletic skill while cursing his often faulty decision-making.

Look no further than this spring’s Triple Crown races in the United States. Calvin Borel was praised for guiding the gelding Mine That Bird to an improbable Kentucky Derby victory by waiting patiently to launch a late run on the rail. He was then blamed for Mine That Bird’s third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes five weeks later, after he moved far too early in the mile-and-a-half marathon.

Even the Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey was sceptical of the study’s findings. He said that better training methods, horseshoes, nutrition and track conditions have lowered race times.

Wilson and his colleagues used GPS devices to determine the average speed of a horse, and inertial sensors to detect and chart the movements of horse and rider. Riding technique was dissected and then compared to historical race times, especially those of the Epsom Derby, England’s greatest race.

The researchers gave credit where credit was due — to American riders who pioneered the “monkey crouch” posture. This coiled and quiet presence in the saddle was developed by the great African-American jockeys of the late 1800s. Willie Simms took it to England in 1895, but the white American jockey Tod Sloan is credited with popularising it there in 1897. His success forced English riders to abandon their long-stirrup, upright seat.

According to the study, the drop in times is greater from 1897 to 1910 — as “sitting chilly” became the norm — than the one percent drop in times over the 100 years that followed. The research suggests that jockeys who oscillate with a horse, scrubbing on his neck, especially in the stretch, can improve a horse’s effort.

“If he pushes at the right time, it looks as if they can drive a horse much like a child propels a swing,” Wilson said. The researchers noted that they did not examine the use of the whip or isolate decision-making.

Bailey again was hesitant to endorse form over function. He pointed to Ramon Dominguez, who leads the national jockey standings in victories, as a rider who tends to sit higher in the saddle, and Alan Garcia, whose mounts have earned more than $6 million, as opposite sides of the same coin.

“Alan sits like a lizard on a log,” Bailey said, “and they both win because there’s no substitute for a well-oiled jockey working with the horse, and that’s better than being a passenger.”

The trainer Bob Baffert started as a jockey, but quickly realised he had neither the temperament nor talent for getting a horse to do as he wanted at high speeds. “I couldn’t ride a hog in a telephone booth,” said Baffert, who has won the Kentucky Derby three times as a trainer. He agrees with those who say that riding is far more art than science. “A good jockey can improve a horse if he is a good fit for him,” Baffert said. “That’s why we have speed riders and come-from-behind jockeys. The best stay cool and calm, and horses can feel it.”

Still, there is a constituency of serious horseplayers — it’s fair, in fact, to say a vast majority — who believe that riding a racehorse requires neither art nor science and that is why jockeys continue to get the horses they bet on beat. Their data come in the form of worthless tickets stuffed in a shoebox.

Len Ragozin’s Sheets are among the most detailed analyses of a race and are considered by many the Rosetta stone for cashing a big ticket. The Sheets take into account factors like track condition, surface, depth of track, distance raced off the rail, weight carried and wind speed and direction. The jockey, however, figures only on the downside of the analysis.

“I think they are an important part of the horse race, but more in a negative sense than positive,” said Len Friedman, Ragozin’s longtime partner-in-charge. “He usually hurts horses’ chances, by going wide, moving too soon and running into trouble. Doing something affirmative? It doesn’t happen too often.”