#jockeyposting 🏇

[kiragecko]

@elodieunderglass

Just realized that “greyuncle” is Small Child for “great uncle.”

In my defence, between the Irish slang, English term, anglicized Gaelic term, and queer slang possibilities, childish mispronunciation had a lot of competition. In my … accusation?, you used “celibate” for “celebrate” in THE SAME SENTENCE, and I recognized what was going on there.

[elodieunderglass]

Love this post so much and every time am pondering WHY, when Ron warren Jr was given 2 distinctive bits of gear associated with his profession and some other athletes are barefoot, WHY is he in sneakers

We need to bring back the athletics body type post

[elodieunderglass]

Why are jockeys not supposed to look at smartphones?? will it make them heavier

No, of course not!

It’ll make them criminals

This is in reference to something I mentioned about a prominent female jockey leaving the sport over breaking smartphone usage rules. Nanako Fujita, who raced for Japan, was an excellent jockey with a promising career and international prospects. She was lucky, talented, and in a sport that’s starving for public interest, popular. But she used her smartphone on a weekend, so on October 2024 she tearfully penned her resignation letter and left the sport.

Now, this is slightly more about Japanese sporting authorities than general horse racing practice, but it’s embedded in the idea that jockeys are inherently just such unscrupulous little bastards that they can only be prevented from cheating by locking them in hamster cages.

Going back to how horse racing is historically the province of organised crime, disorganised crime, chaotic crime, things that aren’t crimes but should be, crimes that haven’t been invented yet, and felonies; and given that it all happens for the amusement of billionaires and royalty, not noted for being generous and scrupulous; and given that - much like how claiming a hobby of “knitting” is really a cover story for collecting yarn - horse racing is really an excuse to gamble;

Given all that background - there’s always been a lot of anxiety about jockeys “fixing” races. After all, they’re historically treated as disposable and make inconsistent and indifferent money while entire fortunes are wagered on their backs they’re in an obvious position to influence race outcomes, and there are unbelievable amounts of money at stake.

Thus, the sport feels that we have to assume that jockeys are simply inherently susceptible to bribery. In the UK, jockeys can’t bet on any races and have to declare their mobile phone numbers to the horse racing authority, and have restrictions placed on where/how/what they can use smartphones for around the tracks. They can’t bring a phone to work, basically. Which isn’t too unusual in some professions. The idea is that jockeys with phones could communicate with each other or outsiders to change racing outcomes, or share information in advance before it can impact on the betting odds (like insider trading on the stock market.) this is not commonly practiced in other UK sports. It’s a working condition imposed by anxiety about preserving the integrity of the gambling.

The Japanese licensing authority is more strict. The night before a race meeting, Japanese jockeys surrender their phones and go into separate quarters without lines of communication. So you might give up your phone at 9pm Friday night, enter a sort of corporate youth hostel, work for 2 days, and recover your phone on Monday. Nanako was caught using her phone during this period of sequestration, even though there’s no evidence that she was using it for race fixing (another jockey caught for the same thing in the crackdown was making a restaurant reservation.) again, this level of control over personal communications isn’t practiced in other Japanese sports! Even Japanese pop idols, famed for having restricted personal lives, don’t risk getting pushed out of their job entirely for touching a phone.

It’s about a lot of things, but the level of control exerted over jockeys is interesting to me! and speaks to their position as athletes who aren’t the focus of the sport they do; of jockeys as the disposable pilots of things that are far more valuable than they are; of workers whose working conditions are unique; of sportspeople whose sport is defined by the anxieties of the rich about gambling; of people whose bodies are ferociously honed for a specific set of rules that don’t even necessarily make sense; of a sport thousands of years old, one of the oldest continuous sports of human history, in which the humans who play it are invisible; of ancient once-immovable traditions colliding, in the 2020s, with renewed interest in animal and human welfare and renewed pressures to Perform for social media and everything changing in ways we can’t see because we’re in the middle of them. Like when I say “one of the oldest continuous sports in human history”, as old as the domestication of horses, think about it for a minute and think how strange it is that the human athletes are this invisible, this disposable, this secondary to considerations. Why is it that you’ve been forced to learn about football against your will all your life, and you never thought for a second about this. Isn’t that wild? I think it’s wild.

(Disclaimer: I’m really not an expert, just a mild fan, which is a bit unusual for my demographic; despite the sport being ancient and internationally known, it isn’t very relatable to “people like us,” so this is kind of the first time anyone on tumblr’s really posted about having an interest in horse racing/jockeys. I’m really not an expert and I barely follow the news and do NOT attend races or understand the stats/gambling. It’s just that it was my first career ambition when I was 6, and it’s one of those things where literally no one else cares, so you get to feel like you have Secrets and a Unique OC.)

[gallusrostromegalus]

Ohhh I was hoping you’d reblog the OC character drawing meme.

Okay how about an open ended one: any OC / 🏇

In Celebration of your recent descent into jockeyposting and the emoji in the ask, I have drawn the as-yet-unnamed AEIWAM OC who is a Shapeshifting Puca, in their form of Several Horses that would like to Drown and/or Eat their enemies, Feat. Retsu Unohana:

[elodieunderglass]

Here’s a jockey drifting a racehorse with significantly less in the way of tack! To counterbalance the horse’s head, he is leaning back in, essentially, ballet shoes, balancing on stirrups.

Akira bike sliding on a horse

[elodieunderglass]

History of Black jockeys in the USA: tumblr starter pack

The gif above was created by animating the motion study of “Annie G,” plate 627 of Eadweard Muybridge’s 1887 work, “Animal Locomotion”. The horse is a mare named “Annie G.” The jockey, unknown, is a Black man. It is one of the earliest motion studies on record, and captures some of the first humans and first animals to be recorded this way. (The earlier 1878 Muybridge study of the mare Sallie Gardener is more famous but you can’t really see the jockey.)

The Black jockey is referenced (fictionally) as an ancestor n Jordan Peele’s film Nope (2022) which also looks at the relationship between Black men, horses, and the consumption for entertainment of both of their bodies.

Fold into that what we are learning about today’s acceptance of the jockey-as-consumable, of their body as an accessory, of their wellbeing as mostly irrelevant; but then remember that once upon a time, people cared a lot more about horse racing. This is a big, tricky topic in American horse racing. There was a time in American history when Black jockeys were enslaved and forced into a job that we know is dangerous and consuming. Later there was a time in American history when Black jockeys were incredibly influential and important, competing equally alongside white jockeys, and they were deliberately pushed out of a sport they had mastered.

“The Undefeated Asteroid,” Edward Troye, 1864. Enslaved horse trainer Ansel Williamson, right, holding saddle. Ed Brown, jockey on left adjusting his spurs, was the young enslaved jockey. The groom is unidentified.

Press Keep Reading for an essay/signposts to resources. It’s intended as a jumping-off point for curious people and historians to learn more. TW for racial discrimination and discussion of weight.

As we know by now, jockeys are considered consumable/disposable by their sport; they are athletes whose names are less memorable than their mounts and their working conditions are tough. The sacrifices that jockeys make today to remain strong and light are hard enough when the jockey is willing. They have hard weight limits on their profession. And one of the very dark horrors of this was that young enslaved Black men of small stature and riding ability were singled out and used as jockeys. Their sacrifices would not have been willing. While this essay is about the Black athletes who willingly entered the sport post-abolition, I think it’s important to be up-front about the history of enslaved jockeys in America. Jockeys like Ed Brown (above) were forced into the job very, very young.

Horse racing is a bonkers calling, but it’s also one that people willingly follow. Post-abolition, there were many Black American jockeys who were incredible athletes, their records and statistics still impressive today. In a surge of excellence around the 1890s, Black jockeys rose to remarkable influence and power in America, becoming household names above even the horses, travelling the world, greeted with admiration, true celebrities with their faces on merchandise. At the very first Kentucky Derby, raced in 1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys were Black men.

Between 1890 and 1899, African American jockeys won the Kentucky Derby six times. By the early 1900s, they were history. The key push to exclude Black jockeys came when White jockeys began violently attacking their African American counterparts by boxing them out during races, running them into the rail, and hitting them with riding crops. These attacks prevented Black jockeys from finishing in the money, and endangered fragile and valuable racehorses. Soon after the attacks began, African American jockeys found they could not get rides. Anxiety over job insecurity appears to have played an important role in White jockeys’ actions: there were only a limited number of riding slots. White jockeys would have benefitted in any circumstances from the exclusion of Black jockeys, but in the late 1890s the US was in a depression, and unease about finding rides was especially high. Combined with a growing anti-gambling crusade that reduced attendance at racetracks and eliminated some tracks entirely, jockeys found demand for their services contracting.(National Bureau of Economic Research)

Professor Pellom McDaniels, describing the impact of this on legendary Black American jockey Isaac Burns Murphy:

MCDANIELS: If black people are supposed to be inherently inferior, to have someone who demonstrates success in material terms unravels this idea and therefore those whites during this time period who believe themselves to be inherently superior, something's broken in their psyches. And Murphy represents that kind of attack on white supremacy.

Isaac Burns Murphy, one of the best American jockeys of history, had an unprecedented rate of wins (something like 44% which is almost impossible.) he was born into slavery, but his mother managed to escape with him as a toddler to a Union Army camp. He was inducted into the Jockey’s Hall of Fame in 1955 and Eddie Arcaro was quoted, “there is no chance that his record of winning will ever be surpassed.” (How could it?!)

Today, the American Racing Museum honours many Black jockeys of history in their Hall of Fame, telling some truly incredible stories that are worth browsing.

Like James Winkfield. Born in America 1882, died France 1974. won the Kentucky Derby twice. Left America due to this rising backlash against the growing prominence of Black jockeys, the KKK in particular explicitly objecting to his celebrity and earnings by sending him death threats. Winkfield therefore rode and trained in Europe, settled in Russia, FLED THE 1919 REVOLUTION WITH 200 HORSES?, married an exiled Russian aristocrat (????) and, lest he know peace for five minutes, defended his horses from the European Nazi invasion with a pitchfork(!!!!). Fleeing WW2 to America, where the new racial segregation was now being widely embraced, Winkfield found hotels that had once welcomed the celebrity athlete suddenly turning him away (never forget that segregation was artificial and deliberate.) I am still stuck on him sneaking 200 thoroughbreds out of Russia. Here’s his Britannica article and Hall of Fame bio.

The campaign of racism and terror was successful at driving Black athletes from the profession, and Winkfield was the last Black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. Jim Crow swept through the USA, and white people in the South comforted themselves with “lawn jockeys,” racist caricature lawn ornaments of Black men in jockey silks.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that Black jockeys began winning high-stakes races in the USA again.

Hopefully this has spurred (ha!) your interest. Here are some links if you find yourself interested in more!

American racing museum: Jockey hall of fame

Kentucky Derby Museum’s Black Heritage in Racing collection

How and Why Black Riders Were Driven from American Racetracks (summary paper, National Bureau of Economic Research)

There is no competition: the legacy of black jockeys (1975 entry in Sepia magazine preserved here. Note that James Winkfield’s picture incorrectly identified as Isaac B Murphy.)

This 1975 photo is from the article above and describes Cheryl Smith, “first Black American female jockey to hold a license.” I haven’t been able to find out much about her, but I’m not a historian - let me know if she takes your interest as a topic!

It looks like there are some big interesting books on the subject, though I haven’t read them myself. If you’re interested in doing a research project, here they are!

The Great Black Jockeys: The Lives and Times of the Men who Dominated America's First National Sport, by Ed Hotaling, 1999

Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey, by Katharine C Mooney, 2003

The First Kentucky Derby: Thirteen Black Jockeys, One Shady Owner, and the Little Red Horse That Wasn't Supposed to Win, by Mark Schrager, 2023.

[elodieunderglass]

I saw this eternally-noshing wood-beast hidden in the woodlands of Brockhampton Estate and thought of you. It is a horse with one aim in life and it is winning!

I can only assume the harness and chains are to stop it eating the entire woodland...

Oh my GOODNESS this feels like. This feels like a horse that Wayland-Smith forgot to shoe. This feels like a horse that defeated Saint Eligius. I’m so glad it has become its own mythic entity. I don’t have the tags to name it, because nobody could.

[elodieunderglass]

J.C. Leyendecker, famous queer artist of dapper 1920s people, across a hundred years of separation: so sometimes we need to get a little athlete, I mean a real small one, posing like he’s going to kill and eat someone, leaving no shards of bone.

Me, humble disciple: absolutely absolutely

J.C. Leyendecker: he could kill a horse by sneering. That’s how cunty he is.

Me: doin my best, boss -

J.C. Leyendecker: you must then put him in the silky underwear -

Me: of course.

Leyendecker: do your absolute best to shine up the silky, shiny, thin underwear. Oil it.

Me: I’m not great at this -

Leyendecker: think silk. Think shiny. Think, “this is how you sell clothing to straight men.”

Me: is - is it?

Leyendecker: the whip must, of course, be slightly suggestive. No, more than that. More than that. It’s important that he be provocatively catchable, AND YET - he can defend himself!

Me: got it, boss. Um - you know I’m not actually - I don’t know how to paint -

Leyendecker: shhh, I am telling you. to sell suits we also need a suit guy. we model the suit guy on a Suit Guy, one of my 1920s Suit Guys, it’ll be great.

Me: I can probably draw -

Leyendecker: suit guy could kiss him on the head. 😘 . Like that. Say that.

Me: 🫡

J.C. Leyendecker, “man and jockey clothing advertisement,” 1923. This is how we sell men’s suits, apparently.

[elodieunderglass]

@alexaloraetheris asked if we could put Killie the Jockey OC on one of these…

I don’t know a huge amount about Fallout, but the premise is that it’s a post apocalyptic landscape roamed by radiation-affected mutants, to which @owligator / @duddyruck added her own “sleipnirs.” We can put Killie on one for sure!

in my take on this premise, the UK and Ireland are affected by radiation but still practice horse racing, as the influential rich and royalty still wish to dominate each other through the proxy of expensive living treasures.

Racing sleipnirs wouldn’t be able to run at 40mph with conflicting legs, so as infants they have the best limbs assessed and the poorer specimens “pruned” to arrive at the preferred racing conformation. Chimaeric fusions of foals to provide good limb selection would be a natural practice. you still want a tiny, vaguely psychic, bonkers jockey.

[elodieunderglass]

100% of my jockey knowledge comes from reading Dick Francis books, have you read any/do you have any Thoughts on them?

TBH despite knowing nothing about horse racing I love his writing and plots, they are my comfort read! I especially enjoy how all his protagonists are Stoic Deceptively Intelligent men with high pain tolerance who fall in love with the female love interest at first sight... Original self insert Mary Sue lol

I thought, this is extremely funny, I will write you a funny little pastiche to show my stylish skills in mimicry and make you laugh!

I did actually feel pain, and I didn't think I liked being shot, but it didn't seem to matter much. In the past two years since the racing injury that had destroyed my hand in an unbelievably horrific way, I had only been able to listlessly pick up the rudiments of the most useless things: a master's degree in forensic pathology, unrivalled proficiency in one-handed lockpicking, an entire secret identity as a hard-hitting financial investigator, a deeply informed background in turf maintenance, international one-handed chess-playing fame, a one-handed pilot's license not relevant to the narrative, a full career arc as a noir private detective, one-handed photography skills, a stint as an undercover basketweaving instructor and a working knowledge of ancient Etruscan.

None of them mattered, because they didn't have horse racing in. Nobody wanted me, because I didn't either.

I didn't have any horse racing at all in me any more.

But then I was up all night with the toddler, and pastiche comes really fast for me, and it stopped being a Bit and started being A Lot. Maybe too much.

So I also became, apparently, the first person to use this tag on ao3:

And wrote you this:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62461696

Which is of course a full parody of the whole 1965 Dick Francis thriller, “Odds Against,” and which I mostly wrote because the accordion joke struck me as shatteringly funny.

DOES THIS ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, I HOPE IT DOES.

[elodieunderglass]

Have we tried a speciesswap AU where Killie is the Horse and Thunder is the Jocky yet?

(In reference to Killie the Jockey OC and rancid racehorse frenemy O Holy Thunder)

Oh my GOD

HE’s Tall For A Jockey.

HE’s Smaller Than Seabiscuit.

THEY are both more attractive like this.

THEY… actually do fight horse crime.

I learned that there is exactly one (1) family of thoroughbreds in history that express the roan gene.

[elodieunderglass]

Now he can't possibly be cross, which is a huge relief

[elodieunderglass]

I am not immune to the strawberry

japanese racehorse blinders 🍀

[elodieunderglass]

Okay so as I was lying in the tub today, getting around to that self care where I turn off my homo sapiens and give the reins to postosuchus - not important, just setting the scene - it nevertheless occurred to me that while you MENTIONED geyuncles Killie and Derek having comically different sizes of dogs, you haven't yet followed up on that. Postosuchus me just wants to know the breeds, but homo sapiens was tickled about what names they'd have, if one comes from a background featuring such lovely monikers as Seabiscuit and Cobweb :)

Funny you should ask

A 30-year-long story under the cut:

In conclusion: Patrick, Sophie, Pocket. And they didn’t name any of them.

[elodieunderglass]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Great British Racing (@greatbritishracing)

Racing jockeys don’t naturally do numbers on social media - in fact I’m basically the first person on tumblr to post about horse jockeys. but some are trying to make it happen.

The guy pretending to be an HR manager is a jump jockey, the ones being interviewed are all flat jockeys.

Hollie Doyle and Tom Marquand are married to each other!

Sean Levey is playing up his reputation for being serious. He is also awfully good-looking.

Oisín Murphy is one of the most famous jockeys working in the UK today.

Billy “The Kid” Loughnane is one of the youngest jockeys in the sport at the moment!

[elodieunderglass]

I do like a good Sodashi, it has to be said

Sodashi