What is a ‘jigger’? It’s nothing new to racing
A “jigger” — used to shake and stir racehorses with a harmless but highly illegal electric shock — is one of racing’s nasty little secrets. But it’s not new, writes Andrew Rule.
Andrew Rule
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A “jigger” can be many things, not all good.
It can be a long-handled extension on which to rest a billiard cue, or a cocktail maker’s shaker as used to fix a classic “shaken, not stirred” for James Bond.
But around certain racing stables a “jigger” is a name given to a device also known as “buzzer” or “battery”, and is used to shake and stir racehorses with a harmless but illegal electric shock.
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It’s one of racing’s nasty little secrets. But it’s not new.
The jigger has been around at least a century: Squizzy Taylor and John Wren paid jockeys to use them in races in the 1920s, before security film cleaned up race riding.
The man who later trained the immortal Secretariat, Lucien Laurin, ended his jockey career in disgrace in America when barred for being caught with a “buzzer” in his pocket. Laurin had electrifying success as a trainer in the 1970s, when all human and animal athletes tested the boundaries of performance enhancement.
LEADING OWNER’S ‘SHOCK’ AT WEIR ALLEGATIONS
One of Australia’s most famous barristers and war heroes, Sir Eugene Gorman, lived long enough to see Secretariat race. Sir Eugene loved racing. He especially loved winning bets.
One day in the 1950s, according to the jockey who rode a Gorman horse at a city meeting, the great man won so much he bought the jockey a Caulfield house as reward.
The reason the jockey, “Billy” Box, was so sure of winning was that he used a jigger. He asked his friend, champion jockey Scobie Breasley, to let him through on the fence after the home turn. Breasley obliged.
Box jabbed the horse with the jigger in the straight and it hit the line like Phar Lap. As he passed the post, Box ditched the jigger under the rail, where his brother Jacky picked it up.
Sir Eugene’s many descendants can assume their forebear didn’t know cheating had made his big bet a sure thing. And Billy Box’s descendants have presumably told the tale for decades.
All of which is background to the news that leading trainer D.K. Weir was detained by police and racing authorities on Wednesday after they raided his stables.
The devices police allegedly found in raids at several properties could be commercial cattle prodders. Or they could be secret custom-made devices, which can range from matchbox size to mobile phone size.
These are reputedly used by the disreputable to shock horses in training so they will respond to a signal in a race.
Like Pavlov’s dogs, horses swiftly learn to anticipate a shock: so if a horse is pricked with a pin at the same time it is given a shock in training, and is then pricked with a pin in a race, it will respond. At least, that’s the theory.
All of which might explain why some jockeys get so busy with the reins and throw their hands around like flyweight boxers as they straighten for home. A lot of people will be watching a lot of race replays for signs of pins and needles.
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