How Much Does a Jockey Weigh?

It has been said that it's the differences of opinion that makes horse racing possible. Uncertainty of outcome always makes for an interesting and exhilarating sport, especially when gambling is a cornerstone. However, when Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course built their incredible new facility, they left nothing to chance. Built on the site of the original track's grandstand, they celebrated their grand opening in early 2008 and invited Rice Lake along for the ride.

Horse racing is one of our oldest sports. In England's early 1700s, it first became a professional sport. With large monetary stakes tied to predicting the winners of a race and with few regulations in place, early days of the sport were littered with shadiness. One dodge was "sandbagging"; weighing down selected horses or jockeys and betting on horses carrying less weight.

Eventually, regulators caught on and implemented countermeasures—forcing the jockeys, with their tack in hand, to be weighed before and after each race. The riders had to fall within the weight requirements before the race and after it.

A sport as steeped in tradition and hunches as horse racing often clings to antiquated equipment. Even today, some tracks continue to use mechanical scales—scales that are prone to weight fluctuations with varying weather conditions, and that are also the frequent victims of scale rage damage from jockeys upset with their weight reading.

Albert Felicio, president of Apple One Scale & Calibration, remembers going up against competing bids when Penn National was making its decision. "The competitors had plastic indicators and that sort of thing. The quality just wasn't there," Albert said. "When I brought in Rice Lake's DeckHand™ and IQ plus® 390-DC, it really wasn't comparing a scale to a scale. I had the only real scale available." He also remembers servicing mechanical scales at area race tracks. "Friday nights around 6:30," Albert said, "I used to expect a call from the race track to fix their scale."