As a horse racing fan myself, I have to comment on this
one.
Those jockeys may be little, but most folks consider them the
strongest professional athletes out there. Small men and
occasionally women, often fasting and purging to keep their
weight down, riding atop and controlling a ton or so of
fast-moving horseflesh in very tight quarters: this isn't a
job for sissies.
Besides, most jockeys are from the great underclass. At the
top of the professional level are lots of Cajun jockeys who
learned their skill in illegal match races in the backwoods,
as well as a long of Hispanics, both from this country and
from other countries. Not too many bluebloods in the
lot.
They also come back from life-threatening injuries to ride
again within amazingly short periods of time (at least the
lucky ones do). In the U.S., at least, an ambulance follows
the field of horses around the track. What other sport to you
know of where that occurs?
Teri (a fan of hard-boiled jockeys)
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