More Than A Job - Apprentice jockey Troy See: Rough rider
Photo: Nurul Amirah/Yahoo Singapore
More Than a Job
Whatever your chosen craft, vocation or profession, we all have work to do. In a biweekly series, Yahoo Singapore talks to individuals who have chosen unique, unconventional and distinctive careers. For some, it’s about passion. Others have a sense of duty. But for all of them, it’s more than a job.
The life of a jockey sounds a bit like that of a supermodel preparing for a fashion launch. Come hell or high water, jockeys must get to the right weight by Sunday: race day.
“The tough part isn’t not eating,” said Singaporean apprentice jockey Troy See, 27. “The tough part would be when, come Friday, you’ve still got say, two kilos to go, and you’re already not eating, so you got to lose the water weight.”
Every horse in every race has an assigned weight, typically under 60kg, which refers to the weight of the jockey and the saddle. In order to ensure they make the assigned weight, jockeys typically try to weigh in at around 50kg or less. See, who is 1.58m tall, fluctuates at around 53kg or so.
Closer to race day, jockeys who need to lose a few kilos typically sweat it all out for hours in the sauna. For See, he puts on four or five layers of clothing, wraps it all up in plastic, and goes running and walking for 90 minutes. “In that one and a half hours, I can lose about two kilos,” said the soft-spoken See.
By the end of race day – a jockey can do up to 12 races – See is left completely dehydrated. “You’ll be so thirsty that, a jockey once told me, and I agree with it, taking cold water or 100 Plus is better than sex,” he said with a grin.
A high-risk profession
(Video by Nurul Amirah)
See, currently the leading apprentice jockey in Singapore, is just a year away from becoming a full-fledged jockey. He has racked up about 70 victories in the past four years. See got hooked on the sport when his late father Dexter, who owned horses, brought him to the races as a teenager.
His trainer John O’Hara, 52, praised his “natural ability” – See took only five races to notch his first victory. O’Hara, a 30-year veteran of the industry, noted, “He’s a very good judge of a horse. He can tell you whether it’s a good or average horse.”
But the physical cost of what is often called the sport of kings has been a heavy one. “I’ve gone for knee surgery, broken my leg, had a ruptured artery in my brain, broken a few ribs, internal bleeding in my liver, got kicked by a horse, broken my toe,” he said matter-of-factly.
A few years back, See even witnessed a friend being fatally trampled after a fall. “I think it got him somewhere on the neck or the collarbone. He bled to death on the spot,” recalled See. While it has yet to happen to him, “falling in a race is just a matter of time,” he said.
Veteran jockey Matthew Kellady, 37, can testify to that. In 2009, he suffered a bad fall that almost ripped off his right ear and caused facial fractures. “It really scared me for a bit. But until now, I’m still in love with what I’m doing,” said Kellady.
Becoming a jockey
Horses at the Turf Club get a good shower. Photo: Nicholas Yong/Yahoo Singapore
Horse racing has a long and storied history in the Republic, with the Singapore Turf Club first founded in 1842, and is a multi-million dollar industry here.
The Club receives 40 to 50 track rider and apprentice jockey applications each year. Jockey applicants start their training as a syce, or stable groom with an average salary of $1,600 per month. They must undergo a four-year training programme before becoming an apprentice jockey, and it takes another five years to become a full-fledged jockey.
Screengrab from Tote Board website
As a syce, See’s days started at 6am, when he had to clean the stables and clear out the excrement. That was followed by riding horses, before feeding and cleaning them. The afternoons consisted of walking and grooming the stallions, or taking them to the vet.
On top of all that, See had to work on his physical conditioning – running to keep up his fitness, and riding a mechanical horse to build his muscles. He only got an off day every two weeks, and earned about $1,000 a month back in 2008.
Unsurprisingly, he saw many of his friends drop out of the programme. “The training period is like going through four years of Basic Military Training. Whether you graduate and become a jockey after that is a huge question mark.”
The sweet smell of success
See wins another race. Photo: Singapore Turf Club
The prize money for a race typically starts at $35,000, and goes up to six or seven figures for big races. The winning jockey claims five per cent of it, while the second and third placed jockeys get two per cent and one per cent, respectively. This is in addition to the $250 a jockey gets for each race he competes in.
With the rewards so great, the spectre of race fixing is never too far away. See has been approached more than once for racing tips, or to throw a race. “Wherever there is money and gambling involved, there will be such things,” said See with a shrug. “But you have certain principles and laws you have to abide by.”
With his track record, See can easily earn $10,000 in a month. But race days were unnerving at the start of his career: clad in his vest, silks, skullcap, boots and goggles, mounted on the horse and waiting for the gates to open and the race to start.
“There’s thousands and thousands of people at the races. When you’re smack in the centre, at the spotlight, and everyone’s looking at you, you feel uncomfortable, especially when you’re riding a horse that’s say, a favourite for the race. Everyone thinks it should win.”
Now, See listens to motivational music before each race, such as Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. He said, “It really fires me up and gives me a very aggressive attitude.”
The memory of his father
Troy See in action on race day. Photo: Singapore Turf Club
Being a successful jockey is bittersweet for See, whose father never got to see him win a race. Initially opposed to his youngest son’s chosen vocation because of the nature of the job, he grew to support him, even introducing him to his racing contacts. “He realised that I’m a lot more stubborn than him,” said See with a laugh.
Dexter See passed away suddenly in 2011 after being diagnosed with leukemia. “It all just happened so quick,” said See quiety. “He was in hospital one week, and the next week, he passed.”
Asked what he might say to his father if he were still around, a visibly emotional See took a long pause. “If he’s watching the races now, I hope that he’s proud, you know, that he’s enjoying the racing and especially when I’m on the saddle. I just hope wherever he is, he can share the joy with me.”
Look out for the next instalment of More Than A Job on Monday, 29 Aug.
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