With the debate over the scale of weights and jockeys' health gaining national attention, the Jockeys' Guild has accelerated efforts to formulate a viable plan that would help improve the overall health of professional riders without compromising the sport of racing.

Guild executives are considering a model plan from amateur wrestling, another sport in which athletes often practice extreme measures of weight loss. The deaths of three collegiate wrestlers in 1997, which were believed to have been the direct result of severe weight-loss measures, led the National Collegiate Athletic Association to immediately raise all weight divisions by seven pounds and launched a movement to permanently reform the standards.

What the NCAA developed in the wake of the deaths would be ideal for use in Thoroughbred racing, said the leading proponent of the plan, jockey and former wrestler Robert Colton, who also serves as Guild secretary.

To compete in an NCAA-sanctioned tournament, a wrestler must undergo a weight assessment during a preseason physical examination, at which time a minimum weight class is assigned based on a number of physical factors, including minimum percentage of body fat. It is then illegal for a wrestler to compete at a weight below that level.

"Say a horse gets in at [114 pounds] and I'm eligible for 115—now it is no longer up to me to try and starve my body," Colton said, adding that it is already common practice for horses to tote slightly more than their assigned weight. The model would leave it up to the trainer to decide whether to use the jockey at 115 pounds or find another person eligible to ride at 114.

"This would take an effort from the entire industry to institute, but I think it would work," Colton said. "This the right environment for it now."

The two Guild committees focusing on the subject are slated to present their recommendations to the board of directors during a conference call in late October.—Victor Ryan