Professional jockeys are always seeking ways to gain the advantage over their riding rivals. Precisely how the jockey is positioned on the horse turns out to be an extremely important factor – one that has aroused recent scientific interest. One innovation is the so-called monkey crouch. This crouched style over the base of the horse’s neck was actually a drastic departure from the upright riding style that was in vogue until the very end of the nineteenth century. Who began this practice? Was this innovation the result of intelligent design? The answers to these questions vary, with three likely originators coming to the fore: Tod Sloan, Willie Simms, and Harding Cox. Their fascinating stories intersect in England and reveal that the invention of the monkey crouch was not due to foresighted design. The evolutionary processes of variation, selection, and retention seem to have been hard at work in its development.

A second horse racing innovation is riding “acey-deucy.” With this technique, the jockey’s left stirrup iron is commonly placed from 2 to 12 inches lower than the right by separately adjusting the attached leather straps. This acey-deucy style confers important advantages on oval tracks, where only left turns are encountered in counterclockwise American races; it permits the horse and jockey to better lean into the turns and to enjoy better strength and balance, thus harnessing the centripetal force of a tight bend. This sounds so scientific that it must have resulted from careful study and planning, right? But, no it didn’t! The origin of riding acey-deucy was actually accidental. Bad fortune became good fortune for riding sensation Jack Westrope, who is now credited with beginning and perfecting this racing innovation. Combined with the monkey crouch, acey-deucy allows the jockey to “fold into” the horse instead of squatting over him.