If by “we” you mean the U.S. racing community, that has already happened. But feel free to continue fanning the flames based on your expert diagnosis of anorexia in a person you saw for a few minutes on a TV screen. I’m finished trying to inject sense into this conversation.
(By the way, only one of the sources your googling turned up is even from the U.S. and it’s 10 years old.)
You can be concerned about Jockeys having to make weight without singling out a rider as you have done here. It’s very unkind.
Asmussen grew up in racing so he knew the sacrifices he would have to make if he chose to ride professionally. He has a master’s degree in accounting so he has other career options. He’s an adult.
Yes, exactly. We can’t assume anything about Keith’s health and eating habits. We can absolutely express concern, but jumping to the conclusion he has an eating disorder is unfair and harsh. Even if it’s ultimately revealed as true, it’s still judgmental and cruel to speculate and then perpetuate harmful gossip. It’s his private business.
For what it’s worth, my husband has an insane metabolism: in high school, he’d reached his adult height of 6’4” but struggled to be even 150lbs. In college, he was ~160lbs. It wasn’t until his late 40s that he reached what is considered a “healthy” weight for his size, despite eating everything in sight (totally not fair, I gotta say). He had a doctor speculating he was anorexic when he was in high school, which mortified and embarrassed him … nope, he just had the metabolism of a hummingbird on speed.
I can’t speculate that’s the case with Keith any more than I can speculate he has an eating disorder. The ultimate truth is we don’t know. We are concerned, but we don’t know, and it’s such a private issue (either way) it isn’t remotely our place to draw conclusions.
I never said he was uneducated, I said he was underweight in order to compete. I think we should protect these riders the way we try to protect the horses. It’s not “cruel” to point out that jockeys are forced into eating disorders to make weight. This is 100% documented literally everywhere, including from the jockeys themselves. It’s not an insult to say someone is suffering from anorexia, especially if they are forced into it (ballerinas, swimmers, high school wrestlers, etc. have this same issue) for their job or sport. But let’s all just pretend it’s normal to make people stay at an unnatural weight in order to go to work. Jockeys have hard lives and this is just one element of a job rife with mental health issues, physical problems, and suicides.
I’m frankly shocked by some of the responses here. If I had posted about seeing a seriously ribby horse in a roadside pasture, I can’t imagine any of you saying I’m being mean and the horse is just “naturally thin” 
The fact that you even think your comparison holds water, shows how little you really know/understand.
It’s wild that I’m being attacked and insulted for suggesting we shouldn’t make jockeys starve to ride. I have to say I did not see this coming!
You aren’t being “attacked” for caring about the health of jockeys.
What bothers people (me anyway) is that you have singled out one jockey, named him, posted photos of him and diagnosed him, all on a public forum. It’s unkind and unhelpful.
You could have started a thread about jockey health without doing the equivalent of standing in public and pointing your finger at someone.
It was that he is much taller than the other jockeys and therefore is very, very thin in order to weigh in the same as someone a head shorter. It just really took me aback when I saw him.
This forum goes after public people left right and center, so I find this pearl clutching a little disingenuous to say the least.
Haven’t there been occasional discussions about raising the base weight that the race horses should carry so that the jockeys have a little more breathing room on the weight?
I feel like I’ve heard that mentioned in passing a few times, but nothing ever seems to come of it.
Yeah I’ve felt the same, there are a few on here that seem to think they’re racing royalty and will treat you like a brumby with burrs. After hearing a few stories about how some jockeys lived from my friend I saw them in a whole new light. Talk about giving every bit of yourself to your craft. Many kudos to them.
I’m certainly not “racing royalty” and have long been concerned about what jockeys have to do to make the weight.
It’s the public singling out of one rider here that is the issue for me. The subject could have been broached without singling out one jockey, who now, when anyone googles his name, will be linked to this thread, and the OP’s post that he is “anorexic” and “it looks like his body can barely hold his head up”…“poor guy”.
The subject of jockey weight and the toll of making the weight has been discussed by jockeys, usually after retirement, and I’ve always thought to be an important subject to discuss and debate.
It’s the singling out of one person in the manner that the OP did was (IMHO) unkind and unhelpful.
To simplify…
Having a public discussion about the sick and systemic abuses jockeys’ bodies take to make weight: Good. Very good and very needed. Open a discussion; share confirmed anecdotes and factual issues; address the issue head-on.
Singling out an individual jockey and conjecturing on what abuses he may or may not be doing to make weight: Bad. Comes across as more gossipy than sincere about addressing the issue above; misguided.
Facts: Good. Conjecture: Bad.
Steve Asmussen puts Keith on his horses in the mornings and in the afternoons. I doubt he would do so if he thought Keith was engaging in unhealthy behavior to maintain riding weight.
Steve is a good family man, or at least he appears to be. He wanted Keith to get his degree before pursuing race riding as a career. Even if he didn’t care about his son, an emaciated rider who is weak from malnutrition is a risk to the expensive Thoroughbreds that are Steve’s livelihood.
I don’t really get the level of offence taken here by alpine1’s post. Anyone who is 5’10" in height that is calorie restricting themselves to meet an artificial weight limit of approx. 118 lbs is concerning. I feel that if we were talking about the modeling industry, people would be screaming bloody murder. The fact of the matter is, I can’t imagine what it must take for a 5’10" individual to make weight for American flat racing. I can’t imagine it is healthy. You don’t hear people voicing concern over other jockeys that are much shorter in height, as the weight restriction would conceivably be more easy to accomplish. And let’s face it – young people do not always make the best decisions about lifestyle and long term health.
For those of (g)us who are worried about jockeys’ health, here is a great place to start:
PDJF. org (Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund)
They hold a fundraising event at least once a year online, but you can donate at any time. Some of the individual racetracks have their own events and organizations similarly (like Canterbury Park and Assiniboia Downs, two racetracks/meetings I watch on YouTube). It’s a great place for me to ‘put my money where my mouth is.’ 
We aren’t. How a jockey chooses to make weight is their business.Quite literally. This is their livelihood.
Anecdoctally, typically the jocks using extreme measures are not well disciplined. Most follow a strict program between diet, exercise and stretching (among other modalities) in an effort to MAINTAIN their weight.
Also, skinny shaming is a real and very ugly thing.
Although Jerry Bailey didn’t call Keith anorexic he did mention that he felt it was much harder for someone of his height to maintain the strength necessary for a jockey, and how difficult it is for a much shorter jock to keep his weight down, much less someone as tall as Keith…
Randy Moss was never a jockey, as far as I know. Just look at him sitting in the booth next to Jerry Bailey, he is definitely not “jockey size.”.
My bad.
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