saunas, jockey championship, favourite horses & spanish steps.

​I’ve never used a sauna, either for pleasure (?) or for weight loss, and I imagine only jockeys know the full extent of the benefit and downfall of using one on a regular basis. The first thought on whether racecourses should reintroduce their use is that surely it is the thin edge of an unhealthy wedge to encourage stick-thin people to sweat, dehydrate and then engage in physical exercise in front of thousands of people. But as jockeys will inform you, it is not a straight up and down issue.
In the past, sweating was a communal event for jockeys, with Turkish baths doing a roaring trade when the jockeys came to town. The late, great, Terry Biddlecombe and his pals were infamous for sweating and drinking together, with champagne their favourite hydrating drink.
A jockey with a sauna at home is free to spend an hour shedding a few pounds, get in the car, perhaps with the heater on whether it be mid-summer or dark winter, and arrive at the racecourse dehydrated and perhaps remain in that bodily condition for ten-hours or more. Whereas, if a sauna was available at the racecourse, the period of dehydration would not only be a lot shorter but the health and well-being of he or she could be monitored by the attending racecourse doctor. The use of saunas is not banned on health grounds, the B.H.A. has only banned their use at racecourses.
The obvious compromise is for saunas to be allowed to return to the racecourse but for individual jockeys to be given only limited access to them and that they must be seen to have consumed a small amount of water before leaving the weighing room to go to the parade ring. After all, racehorses are offered a small drink on arrival at the racecourse as they too cannot perform to their best ability if dehydrated.
Also, there is another way the heavier jockey can be accommodated or allowed a better standard of living – high-weight flat races, where no horse carries less than 9st 5Ibs, for example, with top-weight a stone more. I believe the sport should give all jockeys an opportunity to earn a living and high-weight races, as well as low-weight races for the lighter jockeys, are a way of spreading the love.
Tom Marquand seemingly has no need of a sauna. He, I believe, is more an advocate of ice-baths every morning. Whereas I am more an advocate of hot salt bathes, though that has more to do with medication of haemorrhoids than anything uplifting. He is, if anyone else has noticed, slowly but surely closing the gap on William Buick in the struggle to become champion jockey this season. As I am writing, though I haven’t checked yesterday’s results, he is only 9-winners in deficit and it would make a good narrative for the rest of the season if he could get upsides Buick and give us a good tussle for honours up to the premature and perfectly stupid conclusion to the title race in October on ‘Champions Day’. Either of them would be deserving champions, though for public acclaim and mention in the media, it would be better if Marquand’s other half stole the title from them.
I’m not going to agree with the public vote organised by the Racing Post to establish our favourite horse as too many people will vote for the same horses they voted for in the best horse of all-time, won appropriately by Arkle. The aspect of this vote that skews it from favourite horse to best horse is that we all loved Arkle, Desert Orchid, Red Rum, Frankel, etc. These horses, and others, are equine gods that will never be forgotten.
I voted for Spanish Steps because he was the horse that first took up residence in my heart. Others have followed but none have removed him from the throne of majesty, though Frodon, recently, has given him a nudge or two. If this poll had been undertaken in the 1930’s or late 20’s there would have only been one winner as Brown Jack was head and shoulders the best loved racehorse in the country. He had trains and public houses named in his honour. Different times, of course.
I just hope Spanish Steps earns a mention in dispatches.