impost

[DJofSD]

In Boxcar's thread about his longshot method, a question was raised about the definition of the word impost.

As I recall but can not seem to find quickly from searches on the internet, impost is actually the first of two weighings: impost (in-post?) is what the jockey is assigned by the conditions of the race and is what must be carrried; the second weighing is what we all see waiting for the official sign to go up. The second weighing when the jockey comes off the track (out-post, ex-post?) allows the saddle to be included to compensate for any loss of weight due to perspiration, etc. Heaven help the connections if the lead weights used to "boost" the jockey's weight up to the assigned weight have gone missing.

Any one else heard of this before?

[boxcar]

In Boxcar's thread about his longshot method, a question was raised about the definition of the word impost.

As I recall but can not seem to find quickly from searches on the internet, impost is actually the first of two weighings: impost (in-post?) is what the jockey is assigned by the conditions of the race and is what must be carrried; the second weighing is what we all see waiting for the official sign to go up. The second weighing when the jockey comes off the track (out-post, ex-post?) allows the saddle to be included to compensate for any loss of weight due to perspiration, etc. Heaven help the connections if the lead weights used to "boost" the jockey's weight up to the assigned weight have gone missing.

Any one else heard of this before?

Yup, I have. (There I go dating myself again.) :)

Btw, I had an old Dead Weight angle that I used regarding those "lead weights", which are considered "dead weights". As a rule, trainers prefer live weight (as with jockeys) to dead (as with lead). I used to keep a list of jocks' weights in a little notebook. This was obtained easily enough by noting the overweights in the result charts daily. Then I would wait for trainers to pull a smooth move -- usually quite subtle.

Once in a while, a trainer would switch jocks on the day his pony was being sent out to score. He would go from a light jock, let's say 108 lbs, who was on the horse in his last when his impost was only 109, for example, to another jock who weighs 115 today. And let's say that the horse's impost today was 116, so in this scenario, the horse was carrying only 1 lb. of lead with the new jock; whereas if the trainer had stuck with the old rider, he would have been picking up 8 lbs. of lead. So, while on paper the horse was picking up weight 7 lbs. off his last race, nonetheless the trainer's switch to another boy saved the horse from carrying 7 lbs. of lead. A pretty decent and subtle angle -- most especially when supported with other good angles. And obviously, the more dead weight the horse was shedding today, the stronger the angle. I used to like to see at least a 7 lb shift.

Boxcar