As one of the assistant clerks of the scales at Caymanas Park, David Barker’s job is one of the most important in the industry. Barker’s job is all about weights.

He has to make sure that jockeys are not too heavy or too light when they either weigh out or weigh in before and after a race.

The jockeys have to ride at their allocated weight, although under certain circumstances they may be allowed by the race day stewards and the trainers to ride over the listed weight.

“The scale is used to weigh the jockeys for making sure that they go out with the correct handicap weight for the horses and roughly the same weight when they come back in.

“Each horse in a race has to carry a certain amount of weight, and to make sure that each horse does so, all jockeys must weigh out before a race to make sure they have the right weight. Once the jockey has weighed out, he hands the saddle to the trainer to saddle the horse for the race.

“After the race is run, the jockey then must weigh in with all his equipment and this is to verify that the horse which he rode carried the right weight.

“If a jockey is lighter than the weight the horse has to carry, the difference is made up by lead weights.

“So I have to be on my toes in making sure the riders have all the gear they are going to ride with, because they can be disqualified if they don’t carry their correct weight,” Barker told the Complete Racing Guide.

Have there been cases of jockeys weighing in heavier after a race? According to Barker, that has occurred in the past. He noted, however, that jockeys are allowed a mandatory one kilogramme allowance when they are weighing in.

“When jockeys weigh around the back to come out to ride, they don’t weigh with their safety vests. Since the average weight for a vest is about a pound, they should come back roughly a pound over.

“However, in rainy conditions, the jockeys will come in like a kilo over due to the rain which soaks their riding gear, so normally after the race, they should come back [weighing more than] what you go out with. Some jockeys nowadays, when they ride they lose weight,” Barker explained.

When asked if a rider can cheat the scales, Barker said: “Not that I know of… the scales are there to make sure that the correct weight for a horse to carry is what the horse is going to carry. It is in the integrity of racing. If you handicap a horse, normally the best horses are given the top weight and the lesser horses are given less weight in order for them to have a fair advantage.”