Making weight.

Many contend that the weight limits are too low, forcing jockeys into unhealthy practices.  That debate has raged for years.  But the fact is, jockeys must control their weight if they want to ride.

 

Migliore, 43, currently riding at Saratoga Race Course, figured out how to control his.  It wasn't easy (he's 5-foot-7-inches, tall for a jockey), and it happened after a decade if extreme measures, but he did it.

 

Q:  When you first started riding in 1980, what were your issues with weight?

 

A:  I knew about 2-1/2 weeks beforehand that I was going to ride my first race, and I knew the horse would be assigned 107 pounds, meaning I would have to weigh 104.  (The other 3 pounds would be equipment.)  It was right here at Saratoga.

 

There used to be a Woolworth's in the middle of town, and I got on the scale there, and I weighed 123 pounds, dressed.  I'd been running around all summer at the Dairy Queen, with my friends, acting like, you know, a normal person.

 

So I hardly ate anything.  I drank grapefruit juice and ran every day in plastic suits.  But I got down to do my weight.  I lost 19 pounds in 2-1/2 weeks.

 

Q:  What happened next?

 

A:  Then I wouldn't have another mount for a week or so, and I'd wind up putting weight back on.  I'd be 110 or 112, and I'd have to get back down to 104.  I was a yo-yo.

 

Q:  How'd you lose the weight?

 

A:  I ran the gamut.  I did everything known to man to lose weight.

 

Frankly, when you start riding and first walk into a jockeys' room, you're shown all the wrong ways.  It's gotten better through the years.  In general, jockeys are a lot healthier nowadays.  We've gotten a lot more savvy about maintaining our weight and healthy lifestyles.

 

But on your introduction to the room, a guy takes you and shows you where the heaving bowl is: This is stall designed for where you're supposed to throw up after you eat lunch.  This is the steam room that leads to the sauna (called the hot box), which ranges, I believe, from 140 degrees to 160 degrees.  And if you need to, the masseur will wrap you in a plastic sheet and put a heat lamp on you.  You can go into the whirlpool at 105 degrees if you've got to lose a pound in about a half an hour.

 

This guy will give you Lasix.  That guy will give laxatives.  It's absurd.  You walk in there, and the only thing on your mind is riding.  You're not thinking about your health.  You're not thinking long-term.  You're just thinking, I need to make this weight to ride this race on this day.

 

Q:  How long did it take, say, to lose three pounds in the hot box?

 

A:  It depended on how hydrated you were to begin with.  It could take an hour and a half, or it could take two and a half hours.

 

You'd sit in there.  You'd take a break and then go back in.  You'd rub yourself with salt to help draw more water out of your body.  You might skip rope.

 

Q:  Would you put on weight simply by eating normally?

 

A:  Absolutely.  When you're already 20 pounds below your natural body weight, anything you put in your system your body fights to hold on to.  You stop processing foods the way a normal person would.  Your body's already (deprived), and what you're doing now is taking water weight out of your body and dehydrating yourself to make reasonable weight.

 

Q:  Did it take it's toll?

 

A:  I was always real fortunate, because physically I could get up for my job, and I could always ride very strong.  But mentally, I'd break down, and I had a hard time dealing with people.

 

When you're hungry and thirsty, you're not rational.  I would say things to people about their horses after a race that I didn't even mean -- awful things, critical things -- just because I felt so bad, so hungry and so thirsty, and honestly, physically in pain.

 

Q:  What did you do to break the cycle?

 

A:  After 11 years of that, I just reached a point where I was either going to wind up quitting early -- but I love to ride horses; I mean, that was the easy part of the job -- or I was going to figure out a better way to do this.

 

I had to ease myself out of all those bad practices.  It was difficult and took me about a year or so. But they were changes that had to be made.  I didn't go on any formal diet.  I basically found the foods that worked for me, that my metabolism broke down better, that I didn't seem to blow up and get heavy on.

 

And I eat only one meal a day.

 

I'm fortunate, because the things I like to eat are the things I can stay light with -- fish, salads, greens.  And now I'm incorporating more fruit in my diet.  I was always leery of fruit because of natural sugars.

 

Q:  Are there foods you crave?

 

A:  I have a great sweet tooth.  If I could eat chocolate all the time, I would.  But obviously, that wouldn't be conducive to my job. I do love pasta, but I don't allow myself to have it very often.

 

It takes a lot of self-discipline. But I feel very good.  I weigh every day 113, 114 without having to flip (induce vomiting), without having to go into the box.

 

Q:  That's great for you, but this isn't something you recommend for the average person, is it?

 

A:  Definitely not.  What I'm doing is obviously extreme for me to be able to make weight to make a living.  That being said, what I eat could be an example for people.  I eat really healthy.  I just don't get to do it two or three times a day.