Jockey
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Lautrec_the_jockey_1899.jpg
In sports, a jockey is one who rides horses in thoroughbred horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. Jockeys are nominated by horse trainers to ride their horses in races, usually for a fee (which is paid regardless of the prize money the horse earns for a race).
Jockeys usually start out when they are young, riding trackwork in the morning for trainers, and entering the riding profession as an apprentice jockey. An apprentice jockey is known as a "bug boy" because the asterisk that follows the name in the program looks like a bug. All jockeys must be licensed and usually are not able to have an interest in a bet on a race. An apprentice jockey has a master, which is a horse trainer, and also is allowed to "claim" weight off the horse's back (if a horse were to carry 58 kg, and the apprentice was able to claim 3 kg, the horse would only have to carry 55 kg on its back). After a while, the jockey becomes a senior jockey and would usually develop relationships with trainers and individual horses.
Famous jockeys include Sir Gordon Richards, Willie Shoemaker, Eddie Arcaro, Laffit Pincay, Jr., Russell Baze, Lester Piggott, Frankie Dettori and Tony McCoy.
Various awards are given annually by organizations affiliated with the sport of thoroughbred racing in countries throughout the world. They include:
See also
The term jockey can also be used to mean driver, operator, or manipulator, thus giving rise to terms like Disc jockey and even Google jockey (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/googlejockey/).