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Ride on When it comes to thoroughbred racing, these veteran jockeys at Arlington Park have seen it all, and they're not done yet.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Mike Spellman Daily Herald Sports Writer

With more than 100 years of riding experience, more than 110,000 mounts and nearly 15,000 wins, three veteran jockeys at Arlington Park have ridden competitively enough times to circle the globe three times.

Who better to talk about the state of their sport than jockeys Earlie Fires, Ray Sibille and Randy Meier?

From the subject of jockey weights to the mental strain of the job, from earnings to Smarty Jones, these three riders told the Daily Herald exactly what's on their minds and where their sport is headed:

Q. Let's talk about the (minimum) weight issue.

Sibille: The doctors at the (Jockey's) Guild are saying that if we maintain 118 pounds and you have 5 percent body fat, your organs won't cannibalize each other. If we get to 118, people are saying, "What's to stop exercise boys who weigh 125 from doing the same thing we have to do to get to 115?"

No. 1, we don't have many exercise boys that weigh 125, and the ones that do weigh 125, they've already been jockeys and they don't want to be jockeys anymore.

It takes a certain kind of human being to ride that race and come back knowing you've done your best, you've tried and put yourself in harm's way.

Then you've got a trainer that weighs 450 pounds that has never ridden a horse in his life that's going to (chew you out) all the way back to the jock's room screaming at you that you rode bad. The exercise boy doesn't want to deal with that.

No. 3, when I get to that...

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