A Holistic Approach To Jockey Coaching

[Wandering Eyes]

Throughout the history of horse racing, the industry has constantly developed to serve the horse and improve the breed. New developments in feed and healthcare, stricter welfare rules and modern technology all add to the top-class care Thoroughbreds enjoy to make sure they are always at their very best.

It is, then, rather amazing that it is only in recent years that the focus has turned to the human athletes who partner them across the line. It is something that Wayne Middleton, Fitness And Conditioning Coach at RACE (Racing Academy and Centre Of Education), is all too aware of.

“We’re so up-to-date on how to prepare the horses,” he says. “So much energy and research is done on conditioning horses, but then for years, it was just a case of making sure the jockey was at the races on time and made the weight. There was no care of what happened before or after that. But that’s changing now.”

Middleton has been integral to the changes made at RACE since he joined the team four years ago. He grew up on The Curragh, surrounded by horse racing, but his current role is his first position within the industry, as he explains, “I’ve always been involved in strength and conditioning but before this, I worked with sports teams in football and rugby, and I’ve always been interested in how we can make athletes better.”

He, like his work, is never a complete project. He adds, “I finished my degree late, in 2017, and I’m starting a Masters in St. Mary’s in London in September. I’ll be there for two and a half years and I’ll be very surprised if anyone there has ever worked with jockeys.”

For 10 months of the year, Middleton works with the Trainee Jockey Course, training aspiring jockeys in the gym twice a week, as well as teaching classes on subjects such as anatomy, physiology and lifestyle. There is much more to the course than simply shaping young jockeys, as he explains, “You’re trying to build good people, as opposed to fantastic jockeys. That’s because the stats would say, that of every class that leaves here, maybe one in five might actually have a career as a jockey, but then how many of them will be successful is more difficult to gauge.”

As well as preparing these youngsters mentally, Middleton teaches them the skills to lead a physically healthy life and break away from a history of jockeys losing weight in an unhealthy fashion. “Yes, they’re going to have to manage their weight,” he admits. “There’s no getting around that. Yes, they’re going to speak to jockeys who sit in saunas and waste. You want to give them the tools so that they make the weight in a healthier way.”

One of the first issues Middleton addressed was diet.

“It’s my fourth year here and when I first came, the food at RACE was really bad,” he says. “Culture is a huge thing and changing a culture in any sport takes a lot of time. You come into an environment here where everything is fried food, chips, etc., it’s very difficult to come in and tell them right, throw everything out the window. It doesn’t work like that. The same goes for any sport.”

You can sense the pride in Middleton’s voice when he outlines the current situation at RACE. He says, “If you look at the menu now compared to what it was 10 years ago, it has changed radically. The trainees come in here now and have an array of healthy options. There’s no fried food here anymore, there’s no deep-fat fryer. If there are any chips, they are hand-cut chips cooked in the oven. John, the chef here, is fantastic.”

The fast food culture affects the general population, though, and is what Midleton sees as the driving factor. He says, “Quite a large percentage of 14-, 15- and 16-year-old kids these days are eating really bad food on a regular basis. I put a plate of salmon, broccoli and carrots in front of them and they ask where’s the ketchup. There a lot of issues there: there are social issues, parental issues, but I don’t focus on that at all.”

A major issue is that jockeys often manage both to eat junk food and meet their desired weight, and trying to convince them that this is wrong often proves difficult. The logic is very simple, according to Middleton, who says, “If you look at the science of any weight loss, if you eat less, you will end up losing weight. So, technically, you can eat McDonalds every day and lose weight, which is actually what tends to happen with a lot of the guys in the industry. They don’t eat all day and after racing, they stop off on the way home and eat something unhealthy. But because they haven’t eaten all day, that might only add up to 600 or 700 calories for that day.”

This feast or famine attitude can have a detrimental affect on their health and this is the real concern for Middleton, as he explains, “They’re feeding themselves with empty calories, which can potentially leads to bone health issues. We have huge research going on here at the moment. Arthur is doing research on bone health through the IHRB, where he has dexus-scanned 160 jockeys and over the next 18 months to two years, he will rescan them. It will be phenomenal research in revealing how healthy, hopefully, or unhealthy, jockeys are from a bone point of view, ranging in age from 16 to 38.”

Bone health is particularly important for jockeys, who face the risk of falling every time they sit on a horse, and this is part of what drives Middleton’s work. “A huge part of what I do is trying to reduce the risk of injury,” he says. “You can’t prevent an injury, you can’t stop someone falling, but research shows that if you’re stronger, your recovery can be quicker. If you do weight-bearing exercise, your bones become stronger, so the likelihood of breaking bones is reduced if you do fall.”

As well as looking at the health of jockeys, research is being done to help improve training techniques. Middleton explains, “There isn’t a huge amount of research out there on how we should train jockeys. Mikey Keighley has tested 10 National Hunt jockeys on their fitness and blood lactates, and will do the same with 10 Flat jockeys. We then hope to learn how fit they are and how we should train them specifically for their sport.”

With the general population itself changing all the time, so too does the shape and size of hopeful young jockeys, which is another subject being examined. “We went down to the Dingle races and did simple research on the height and weight of the teenagers riding there,” says Middleton. “We measured 20 to 24 jockeys over the few days and the average height was 5 foot 8 inches and the average weight was close to nine stone. That’s at about 14 years of age and there was one guy who measured five foot 11 inches.”

Height is not always a barrier to success as a jockey and one of Middleton’s clients is a perfect example. “Billy Lee is 5ft 8 and walks around at nine stone,” says Middleton. “He’s in the gym twice a week and is one of the best guys when it comes to preparing himself. If he’s cutting weight on a certain day, he’ll still eat, and he’s a fantastic role models for young kids coming through.”

Not that the young always seek to emulate their elders, something that Middleton finds frustrating. He says, “I remember one morning we were in the gym and Shane Foley was one of seven or eight there. A couple of apprentices walked in and through the window, saw a Group 1-winning jockey working his ass off in the gym, but they continued into the simulator room. Another night, they did the same thing. If that was me, and I saw one of our best jockeys training hard with everyone else, I’d go join them. For me, that’s the culture at the moment.”

Changing a widespread mindset is the greatest challenge Middleton and others with the same goal face. “Culture shift is difficult and it takes a lot of time,” says Middleton, “Even when it comes to training in the gym, or any aspect of physical training, there is a particular culture already there. They didn’t go to the gym before, because they were afraid they’d gain weight by building muscle. So they didn’t go, and they told others to do the same, and so it continued.”

It’s clear that when Middleton shares his beliefs, he’s realistic that they will not be embraced by everyone immediately and his approach reflects this. “You’re trying to tell them it’s good for them,” he says. “But I’m not going to drag them kicking and screaming if they don’t want to go. There are a lot of high-profile jockeys who don’t go to the gym and are fantastically successful.”

But times are changing and there has also been an important change made recently made to the Trainee Jockey Course which is welcomed by Middleton. He says, “For the first time this year, at the pre-licence stage, there are mandatory workshops that apprentices must do, where they spend two days here doing fitness-testing, a session with the sports psychologist and with the dietician.”

Undoubtedly, the most important introduction to the industry in recent years is the Jockey Pathway. Established in September 2017 and funded by Horse Racing Ireland, the programme offers free access to services with RACE’s dietician, sports psychologist, on-site physiotherapist and fitness training coach, Wayne Middleton.

The services were immediately popular, which came as no surprise to Middleton, who says, “The Pathway is fantastic because you have similar services in the UK, but jockeys have to pay a fee there, whereas it’s completely free here. One of the great things about the Jockey Pathway is that you’ll have young apprentices working alongside Group 1 jockeys. They all get along and work hard together–I find that fascinating.”

He adds, “I think it’s the most unique sport in the world from that point of view. They’re all trying to beat each other when they’re on a horse, but when they come back into the weigh-room, they just start chatting. They go to each other’s weddings, they socialise together, they go on holidays together. They all have each other’s back, but then they’d cut your throat to win a race. They might be at loggerheads over a race, but then they’d share a car on the way home.”

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