jockey dropping his hands

Question
QUESTION: hello madam, why a jockey is fined for dropping his hands before passing the finish line though on a beaten horse???

ANSWER: Hi Gopal,
         I am happy to answer questions but please make a list of them and submit them as 1 entry. It will save me a lot of time.

1 If a jockey drops his/her hands or looks back over their shoulder they can be rightly accused of not riding out the horse, that is, trying to get last ounce of energy from their mount. No punter likes to see the jockey 'give up'.

2 Air cushion whips have a layer of foam rubber or similar wrapped around the fibreglass shaft of the whip. It still makes an impact but it does not damage the horse. Nothing looks worse than a beaten horse returning to scale with whip marks on it.

3 Horses are ranked/grouped according to ability and then races are scheduled according to those rankings. Some rankings/groupings are obvious.
Rankings include 2 yr old, maidens, 1 win, 1-3 wins, 4-5 wins, open class, and so on. Higher grades are stakes races and group races. Generally they are standard between countries but there are exceptions.

4 The % to the winning jockey is usually around 5%. The jockey gets a riding fee what ever the result then a % of the stakes won by their mount in that particular race and may get a bonus #sling# from the winning owner. Once again it varies from country to country.

Cheers,

Don Boddie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hello sir, i'm sorry, from now i will put all the questions in a single entry, here are the follow ups:
2)what does "returning to scale mean"???

3)what are stakes and group races?? and is grade 3 the top or group 1 the top race as considered in comparison??

4)what does "a% of the stakes" and "#sling#" mean??? what about a trainer's % of stakes money??? dont the club any % of stakes money???  

Answer
Hi Gopal,
         It is a term used in racing to describe what happens after the horses finish the race. They run on past the winning post slowing down as they go and then turn around and come back to the birdcage in front of the officials area. Inside the officials area is a large weighing machine . Each jockey must take his gear (saddle, saddle blanket, number blanket, whip, hat etc) and be weighed after the race to make sure they did not throw any item away during the race and thus gain a weight advantage. The term returning to scale refers to returning to be weighed after a race.

Stakes races are usually for fillys and mares. They are very tightly handicapped and it takes a good horse to win a stakes race. The reward is 'black type' which is worth more to an owner then the money from the stakes. When sales catalogues are prepared, any horse that has won a black type or stakes race will have their name in 'bold' typeface. This alerts potential buyers to the fact that the mare is very good and has won against good opposition.

Group races are the best in class type races. The Kentucky Derby, Melbourne Cup, Auckland Cup, Railway Handicap, Thorndon Mile, Grand National, St Ledger, Guineas, are all Group 1 races. The stakes are high and only the best horses enter theses races. A group winning horse becomes much more valuable to an owner.

In most races the stakes (pool of money alloted for that race)are divided 60% 1st 20% 2nd 5% 3rd and a smaller % for 4th and 5th. The trainers and jockeys share (%) comes out of the stake won by the owner of the horse. In a race with a stake of $100,000 the winner gets say $60,000 and the trainer of the winner get 10% ($6,000) the jockey gets 5%, $3,000. These payments are on top of the normal day to day training fees and the usual riding fee.
If the winning owner is feeling very generous after winning he might give the jockey say $1,000 bonus. This is an unofficial payment and is referred to as a 'sling'.
The club do not get any portion of the stakes. There compensation comes from a % of the betting money. In New Zealand it is 13% of the money bet on course during that day and 5% of the money bet at offcourse betting shops.
It varies from country to country
Cheers,
Don