Word: arcaro
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...Arcaro's biggest failing used to be his temper. When he got mad during a race, he crashed flagrantly into other horses. He won a reputation as the roughest rider in the business...
After a race, Davison would take Eddie aside to diagram his mistakes. He showed Arcaro how he lost distance by swinging wide to go around two horses on a turn; low he risked being run into the rail by trying to squeeze through on the inside of a front rider. He formulated it into a rule that Eddie still works by: "Never go outside of two or inside of one." Davison was insistent about never losing ground; it cost Arcaro one spill after another, trying to squeeze through between horses. The first bad tumble he had was from a plater...
Davison also taught Eddie a wrong thing or two: he believed in laying plenty of whip to a horse. Eddie now believes that too many riders lean too heavily on the whip. The trick, he says, is to use the least possible at the right time. Arcaro often just waves the stick before a horse's eye ("it kind of scares them...
...closest competitor today, thin-faced Ted Atkinson, 31, is known as The Slasher because of the way he flails the whip. Arcaro's only other serious rival is the West Coast's favorite Johnny Longden, who is 38. They all have slightly different styles. Longden, for example, is famed as a "whoop-te-do" rider: a jockey who likes to get out front and stay there. Atkinson rides with his stirrups even; Arcaro uses what is called the "ace deuce" technique, in which the right stirrup is about two inches higher than the left. Says Arcaro: "I don't agree...
Slowdown. The clock that keeps running in Arcaro's head really rang the bell four years ago in the Manhattan Handicap. Arcaro was on Devil Diver, a speed horse. Everybody, including the other jockeys, expected him to set a fast pace, and then collapse long before the mile and a half had been run. Arcaro knew how slow he was going; the others didn't and hung back too. The time for the first mile was incredibly slow. When Arcaro finally let Devil Diver run, he outsprinted the others, winning by 1½ lengths...