Jockeys  are the smallest athletes. They are rarely over five feet six, or 120 pounds. The lighter the weight on the horse, the faster it can go. Riding fast horses on the track is tough on the small jockeys. The jockey doesn't"sit"on the horse. He leans forward on his legs. The strain is on his thighs  and calf  muscles. As jockeys age, their legs"go"first. Jockeys also need arm strength. It's a strain holding a 1000-pound racehorse. On muddy days, jockeys get a pounding of mud. The mud comes flying off the hooves  of the horses in front. "It feels like someone is punching you all over,"says one rider. And a jockey can be hurt. A jockey can have a leg jammed between two horses. Or it can get caught between horse and the rail. The worst accidents are from falls. A horse may fall on his rider. Or horses behind may trample if he hits the track. In one year about 240 riders are hurt badly. That's one out of six jockeys. But the jockeys are well-paid. A jockey keeps about ten percent of the money his horses win. Jacinto Vasquez, a five-foot-three comer, has ridden horses to $7,000,000 in wins in the last eight years, which means he does almost $100,000 a year. Why do some jockeys do better than others? "It isn't the way a boy sits on a horse or uses the reins or the whip,"says Conn McCreary. McCreary was a top jockey of the 1950's. He rode two Kentucky Derby winners. "Most jockeys do this the same. It's the 'feel' he has for the horses." "When you come right down to it, it just seems that horses run better for some riders," McCreary says. "A real good jockey doesn't lose with the best horse. And sometimes he'll win with the second or third best." Many Latin-American riders, like Jacinto, seem to have the _ . "Maybe it's because we grew up with horses,"says Jacinto. "Maybe it's because we like to ride. There was a strike at Aqueduct last year. We, Jorge Velasquez, and Angel Cordero (two other top Latin riders) went to a park. We rented horses, and rode around the bridle path !" A really good jockey can often win a race   _  .
only when he rides on the best horse even when he rides the second best horse when he rides on a rented horse if the horse is just a Kentucky Herby