Cross training refers to taking up activities or sports away from an athlete’s primary arena in order to improve total fitness and strength by working on muscle groups that the athlete’s primary sport maybe does not maximally exercise.
Golfer Bryson DeChambeau is an example of cross training improving a professional athlete’s game. During the Covid lockdown, he bulked up and strengthened up. He put on 40lbs of muscle, working out in the gym daily, and improved his drive by over 20 yards consistently. His game improved to such an extent that he won the U.S. Open in September and is now world #6.
There are proponents who say playing sports other than your primary one can actually enhance performance. In the UK, jockey Francis Norton had experienced considerable success in both boxing and horseracing at an early age until, eventually, he had to decide which path to pursue. He chose horseracing and, at the age of 49, is still a top rider.
Chel-c Bailey was a state champion high-school wrestler, competing against boys in middle school and throughout high school. She went on to become a professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter. She has now chosen horseracing as her vocation and the apprentice rider landed a benchmark debut victory at Keeneland recently on her first ride at the track.
Bailey’s first experience of riding was hopping on other people’s horses bareback in her native Washington State, which is where she calls home. She also did some grooming for an Arabian racehorse outfit, which gave her considerable insight.
Horses, though her first passion, were, for a long time, left on the back burner due to her wrestling and MMA commitments.
“My professional record is three wins, no losses,” she says. “I wanted to try and become a UFC fighter, but they don’t have my weight class, which is atomweight (105lb). I was fighting women at strawweight (115lb), so I was fighting opponents much bigger than me.”
Horses were a childhood obsession for Bailey. “I’d watch horseracing movies, read books and say ‘I want to be a jockey’. Horses have always been my favorite animals, and I have always loved being around them, but wrestling and fighting took over and I went away for college to Oklahoma City university, which had the best women’s wrestling team in the United States.
“None of my family or friends had any connection to horseracing, and I didn’t know anyone, or even how to get into it, until I met my husband, David (an exercise rider), in Las Vegas while living there for fighting. Our first conversation was about Husqvarna chainsaws and Thoroughbred racehorses.
“David started working for Chris Hartman at Oaklawn in Arkansas, and I began out at a farm there for Hillary Hartman and started learning from the ground up.”
Bailey says she had a pony as a kid, but she never wanted to put a saddle on it. “It took too long, so I would just throw my leg over it and ride it bareback,” she says.
“I have a low centre of gravity from wrestling and I did a lot of snowboarding, skiing and skateboarding when I was younger, which I think helped with balance when David began teaching me to gallop.
“And then, after my very first race, it felt like I was back to day one, having my first gallop. It’s a whole different ball game. Even breezing a horse versus riding in a race is a completely different thing. You’re not just sitting rating one, there are many more components to it. It’s multi-tasking, It’s 180 degrees difference.
She believes that, pound-for-pound, jockeys are stronger than fighter.
“In fighting you are pushing and pulling and punching and kicking, using every muscle in your body in different ways but for different purposes. I would say jockeys have more balance and more finesse and their type of strength is different. I think jockeys have more agility, have different upper body, shoulder, thigh and core strength and have different split-second cognitive decisions to make.
“And, of course, they need to be able to ride and control a Thoroughbred racehorse at top speed, and they also need to be able to maintain their weight under 120lbs
“I find quite a few correlations with fighting in relation to race-riding. Driving and pushing out a horse, there is some similarity, using your shoulders, both hands punching forward and using your back muscles, using your thighs, using your core.”
There is another major difference between the two disciplines. “The thing I find difficult is that, when I’m fighting, I have a coach, a mentor who teaches you and helps you,” she says. “You don’t have that being a jockey.
“I know I have a lot to work on, to improve and polish up on, but I know I have a lot of ability, heart desire and determination. I have been trying to figure it out myself and that is quite difficult.
“When you are out there, you are out there to race. It is cool and neat to have fans cheering at the races. It’s awesome to have that support but, when you’re coming down the lane and in the final drive, you’re focused on winning the race and everything that’s going on in the race, the same as fighting.
“My 12-month apprentice [bug] year doesn’t begin until after my next win and, with all the restrictions with Covid making traveling to different tracks difficult, I am in no rush for that to start yet, so I am enjoying mostly galloping for Michelle Lovell for now.
“I’m apple-picking a bit at the moment. I really want to ride, but I feel that waiting might be the best option right now.”
Bailey is not going to race-ride now until the spring, when she intends to compete in the mid-Atlantic around Maryland. It’s an intelligent move, apprentices only get a year to claim after their fifth win, there is plenty of racing in that circuit and you don’t have the top jocks you get in Kentucky.
Since her first winner at Oaklawn Park in February, Chel-c Bailey has now won four from 82 as a rider, including a win on October 8 at Keeneland by a nose and a neck, getting up in the last stride under a cool come-from-the-back ride. It was a victory all the more laudable as her stick was knocked out of her hand during the race.
I told her that happens to the best. It happened to nine-time Epsom Derby winner Lester Piggott in France many years ago. He didn’t let it phase him, he just moved alongside another rider, got in rhythm with him, and snatched the stick out of the surprised jockey’s hand. He rode the horse out for second, and the other, now whipless rider, finished a close third.
When the crowd realized what had happened, there was uproar and the bewildered stewards immediately called an enquiry. They called Piggott in, and Piggott gave them the highly unlikely story that the other rider, when he realized Piggott was without a stick, offered the great man his own whip out of the kindness of his heart.
“But what did you say to him,” asked the incredulous stewards. “I said le baton, si vous plait.” claimed Piggott.
The horse was demoted, Piggott was banned, and the French crowd lapped up the replay, cheering with delight at the outrageous tactics deployed against one of their own. By that evening, the story was all over the news on both French and English television.
Now I am not suggesting for one moment that Chel-c Bailey, 10lb apprentice rider, should ever consider such a ploy if she ever found herself in such a predicament again, but I am pretty sure she would have the nerve for it.