Weight is just about every jockey’s living nightmare. The Jockeys’ Guild estimates that two-thirds of all jockeys have to reduce, but many jockeys believe that is a conservative estimate. Forty percent of all jockeys are bulimic. Many others are anorexic.

Jockeys will do everything to make the weight assigned to each horse. They’ll spend hours in sweatboxes, where the temperature can reach 140° F. They’ll swallow diuretic pills like Lasix, which are commonly used to remove fluid for heart patients. They’ll down laxatives, “rent” food, starve themselves and wear rubber suits while jogging or driving their vehicles with the heat cranked as high as possible.

A jockey who can no longer win the battle of the bulge is out of work. It’s that simple.

In steamboxes and saunas, there is no laughter, only quiet consternation, billowing steam and a few buckets of ice the jockeys plunge their heads into when the heat gets intolerable.

Here, there is only one thing that jockeys have on their minds and it isn’t winning. It’s losing. Every pound critical, the goal for most riders is about 112 pounds, with apprentices asked to ride with even less. For many jockeys, 112 pounds isn’t close to their normal body weights of 125 to 130 pounds. When jockeys retire, it isn’t unusual for them to “balloon” back to those 130 pounds in just a couple of days.

No matter how hard they reduce, the weight always comes back. Lose four pounds one day, and the next day it is back staring them in the face. It never ends.

Start with one Lasix pill and it isn’t uncommon for the body to get immune. Then it’s two pills. Then four. You hear of diet programs where people boast about losing six pounds in two weeks. But jockeys have been known to lose six pounds in a few hours.

Sooner or later there’s nothing left to come off. There’s no fat left and there’s not much water in muscles. What comes out then are electrolytes, protein stores and vital minerals like potassium and chloride.

Yet, as they’re asked to be lighter and lighter, to control more than half a ton of rampaging horse flesh, jockeys need to be exceptionally strong. It is a dangerous duality. When jockeys reduce, they can’t be strong. And when they aren’t as strong, they are more susceptible to injuries. Weak, dizzy and drained, some jockeys have passed out in sweatboxes, their bodies going into shock.

Then there are the terrible mood swings. Depression is common too. It is also mentally draining, and when you’re tired, your reaction times aren’t as quick.

And then there are the long-lasting physical tolls. Jockeys can experience blood disorders, kidney and nerve damage, dental erosion and the wizened thinning bones of osteoporosis.

All horses must carry the weight assigned according to the conditions of a race. Handicap and stakes races, which both have higher purses, are different. In handicap races, heavier weights are assigned to the better horses to try to “even” the field. The goal of every racing secretary is to have every handicap race end in a dead heat. Stakes races are handicap races where part of the prize, or purse, is put up by the owners of the horses. Unlike claiming races, horses running in handicap and stakes races also cannot be purchased. They run for no tag.

Weight, an adage in horse racing goes, can stop a train. Many trainers believe just a few pounds can make the difference of half a length. Usually, the first couple of pounds melt away fairly easily because it is mostly just water. But it is the last couple of pounds that are stubbornly insolent. Sooner or later, there’s nothing left to shed.

On most days, Ron tacked 112 pounds. The 105 pounds that he used to tack when he was an apprentice are a distant memory. Gae put him on a diet of just 800 calories a day, gradually working up to between 1,200 and 1,500. But when the weights came out for the 1966 July 4 running of the Suburban at Belmont, Ron’s mount, Buffle, is allowed to carry just 110 pounds.

The favourite, Bold Lad, winner of his past four starts, the champion two-year-old of 1964 and the favourite in the 1965 Kentucky Derby, is assigned a staggering 135 pounds.

For the first time since he started riding, Ron hesitantly pops a tiny 20 mg yellow Lasix pill into his mouth. He knows he won’t be able to get too far away from the bathroom; he is going to urinate like a racehorse.

Climbing on the scale the next day he is relieved. He has pissed away three pounds.

On a stifling hot day, Buffle wins by four lengths. It is Ron’s first $100,000 stakes victory since Tom Rolfe in the Preakness. Ron’s share is $7,208.

This adapted excerpt was taken from The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty by Curtis Stock, with permission from Firefly Books Ltd.

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Learn more about The Turcottes:

Fifty-one years ago, Secretariat, a horse so brilliantly fast and powerful that many of his records still stand, completed his historic Triple Crown victory. Secretariat's rider was Ron Turcotte, a master of his craft who grew up as one of 14 children in the small lumberjack town of Drummond, New Brunswick.

Four other Turcottes—Noel, Rudy, Roger and Yves—followed their older brother onto North American racetracks and into the winner's circle. The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty is the story of this family's journey from their little corner of the woods to the top of the thoroughbred racing world. Each Turcotte found outstanding success, collectively winning a staggering 8,251 races for purse earnings just shy of $60 million. The name Turcotte meant one thing in thoroughbred racing: winning.

But the jockey's life takes a toll. Each brother was in a neverending battle to maintain his riding weight. Noel, Rudy and Roger fought the bottle. And then came the losses, the injuries and the heartbreaks. The unlikely triumph of one of horse racing's greatest families was not without tragedy.

Drawing upon over 30 years of reporting and interviews, journalist Curtis Stock takes readers on an unforgettable ride through the major players and race days of thoroughbred racing. Part biography, part oral history and part creative nonfiction, The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty is a true underdog story and sure bet for any sports fan.