Ruby Walsh: Why I'm hot and bothered about saunas
All sorts of Covid restrictions are now being reversed and one that caused some outcry in the UK during the week was the removal of the three-pound Covid weight allowance jockeys were granted over there
We are all well aware that the majority of Covid restrictions have been lifted, and the country is finding its social and economic feet again. Many things have seamlessly moved back to where they were almost two years ago, and in horse racing that is no different.
Gowran Park on Thursday, like Thurles last Sunday, welcomed racegoers as though they had never been away, and many working environments have returned to the way they were before the pandemic.
All sorts of allowances are now being reversed and one that caused some outcry in the UK during the week was the removal of the three-pound Covid weight allowance jockeys were granted over there. It was given to all riders in the UK during the restrictions because the facilities to lose weight — primarily saunas — were off-limits for pretty obvious reasons.
They remain closed as they have been — and still are — here in Ireland. Therefore, every horse for the past 23 months in the UK has carried six pounds more than the advertised weight. Half those six pounds are allowed here in Ireland too for the jockey’s back protector, but the extra three they had in the UK is being reversed and replaced with a two-pound weight rise for most races.
In theory, the UK riders should be coming out one pound worse off after the reversal, and their Irish counterparts are in the same position.
I know it sounds rather technical and slightly irrelevant to racing fans, but the remaining closure of the saunas is the concern, and I’ll explain why.
From research, we all know that dehydration is only a quick fix for weight making. It is not the answer for weight management, which can only be regulated by diet and exercise.
However, weight-making on any given day is a jockey’s life. Believing you can remove weight-making from the weighroom is like believing you can remove fallers from National Hunt racing whilst still having jumps.
It doesn’t matter how far you raise the weights or how much of an allowance you give because moving the goalposts for those playing brings more people onto the pitch.
Jockeys’ weight management has increased enormously in recent years, but most riders know they can easily make weight that is three pounds below their wake-up weight.
I know as a species we are getting bigger and that over time the weight range for racehorses will have to increase, but that is not going to stop any person who takes out a licence from trying to be as light as they can to maximise their opportunities. Raising them has only encouraged bigger people to partake.
Saunas on site are a blessing because the later you leave it, the shorter the period you are dehydrated.
Sweating will always be part of a jockey’s life, just like weight management is, and whilst people had found a balance during the Covid period, it also pushed some back to the old habits we had, when most racecourses didn’t have a sauna.
On occasion — daily, for some — jockeys will need to remove three or four pounds of water from their body. With the additional three pounds in the UK, losing them cut out that weight loss for some, but not for all.
Those who could stick with their original minimum weight did, but for those who were a bit heavier, it opened the door for them to do a bit lighter.
What they faced with the onsite facilities closed was the same as the one Irish jockeys have been dealing with all through the lockdown: Shifting pounds at home in their baths, whilst on the road to races, or running laps of the track they were riding at and layering up with a sweatsuit on the bottom to drain the required sweat from their body.
I did all that 20 years ago, and there is nothing enjoyable about any of it. Turn your car into a mobile hot box as you drive to work with beads of salty water running down your sleeves onto the steering wheel, all because you will lose weight one way or another as that’s what you want to do.
They should be listened to here and helped. Being a jockey is a choice people make. They know what the weight restraints are and the dangers of riding.
I know the weighing room is a place that understands nutrition and diet a lot better than when I was there, but those outside the weighing room also need to realise that sweating will always be part of that.
Call me old-fashioned if you wish, but horse racing is not the only sport in the world where heavier people try to be lighter. It’s their competitive nature pushing boundaries.
If the solution means a time limit on how long any jockey can spend in a sauna, so be it because there will always be someone with the desire and hunger to push themselves to their physical limits.
I hope the authorities don’t push the jockeys back onto the roads and to their own homes for hours of the same thing. Reopen and keep the saunas.
The world never stopped turning, and neither have jockeys stopped trying to make their minimum weight.
