Shane Foley© Photo Healy Racing
The problems for a Flat jockey in maintaining a light weight can be tough enough at the best of times but an extended spell without racing due to COVID-19 makes the discipline even harder.
Shane Foley is never one to sit in the one place for too long and the Kildangan-based rider, who enjoyed his best ever season when third behind Donnacha O’Brien and Colin Keane in the Irish Flat championship last year, is continuing to stay busy despite the lack of racing.
“I’m in Jessie(Harrington)’s riding out three mornings a week. I also go into Ken (Condon) on a Friday and tip around the Curragh to whoever needs me. Everyone is after taking a bit of a step back as we are unsure of what is happening.
“It’s a bit like a pre-season except normally everybody knows what they are aiming for but at the moment you just don’t know.
“My wife Lorraine has a livery yard and riding school so I’ve plenty to be doing and keeping fit and active to keep the weight in check.
“I always have to work on it but my weight is stable enough at around 8st9lb or 8st10lb. I wouldn’t get much heavier than that.
“The weights going up an extra 2lb during the spell racing behind closed doors was needed as there were no saunas available to jockeys.
“I have a gym in my house with a mechanical horse, treadmill, bike and a cross trainer. I enjoy keeping fit and like keeping on the go whether it is out in the yard or gardening — I always like to be doing something.
“The riding school is obviously closed up at the moment but we are kept busy with maintenance, painting railing and all sorts of jobs to keep the place right.
“All we can do is keep safe and abide by the rules.”
Like many of his colleagues, PJ McDonald needs to keep a close eye on the scales and the current PJA Flat President explained how he is trying to cope on Paddy Power’s ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’ podcast.
“It’s a weird time. We are normally on the go 24-7 and for everything to be shut down it really takes a bit of getting your head around but at the same time taking a look at the bigger picture there is a lot more important things going on in the world.
“We just have to suck it up and be ready to go when we can. I was riding out in Mark Johnston’s but I have stopped riding out in the last ten days as my eldest daughter has asthma.
“It’s tough trying to manage my weight. I try to keep in a routine and get out for a walk first thing in the morning and then do maybe about 30 minutes of something high intensity before dinner every evening.
“When you have nothing to aim at it’s so hard to get motivated. You go out and after ten minutes you want to come back in — it's hard to push yourself. I need a pair of blinkers!
“You just have to do what you can and the hardest part is not having a date that we can come back (racing). If you knew it was going to be a month or six weeks then you would have a target to aim for but at the minute everything is up in the air.
“When I let myself go now I get a lot heavier than I did when I was jumping. I was never sweating when I was jumping and wasn’t restricted in what I was eating. But now because I spend about eight months of the year eating very little when I do let it go for about a month in the winter I get like a little barrel!
“If I was a horse you couldn’t let me down for very long because you’d never get me fit again!
“When you are busy and doing well it is easy to keep on top of it.”
