MOST people treat sports and games as basically the same thing but I beg to disagree. Being a sportswriter by profession (and an avid games player by avocation) gives me credibility if not perspective in espousing this truth (and if you’re not sold as yet, just humor an old man): any contest in which at least two people or groups of people are engaged in pursuing the same thing and contains a real risk of serious injury or death…is a sport. Anything else is a game.That’s why golf is a game but sailing is a sport. Chess and billiards
are games, basketball and baseball are sports. Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, even if it’s on television a lot and its top players are glorified for their skills, is a game while showjumping is a sport.

I make mention of this every time the end of the year draws near and people outside the business ask me why we give a major award to the Jockey of the Year. Funny but people do not equate the profession of a jockey with that of being a sportsman, although they should realize how lucky they are that they don’t have to cling to a half-ton mass of muscle traveling upwards of 40 plus miles per hour on bones and ligaments no larger than that which could be found on a normal human being’s wrist.

Yes, these pint-sized folks or journeymen, as jockeys are normally called once they are considered professional riders, weigh less than 110 lbs. but would have to deal with animals that have up to ten times their body weight and respond only to clicks, prods and whips.

Jockeys are clearly athletes. Recently, two of them were sidelined for good with career-ending mishaps occuring within just months of each other. They were the Philippines’ best and most popular.
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Eduardo “Boboc” Domingo, Jesus “Bong” Guce and Elpidio “Bobot” Aguila – now legenday names – were still in their teens when they began their meteoric rise in the mid-Seventies. They were exciting and they challenged veteran jockeys who held sway for so long.

Domingo, who was the youngest of the three, made plenty of beer commercials at the peak of his popularity then retired while still in his mid-Thirties – quite young by his profession’s standards. He now serves as one of the Commissioners in the Philippine Racing Commission, the government regulatory body and overseer of all horseracing affairs in the country. He represents the jockey’s voice in that group.

The other two continued to be active top-class riders. Bong Guce earned the nickname “El Maestro” for his tremendous riding skill and how he somehow “schooled” younger riders while beating them across the finish line. Bobot Aguila was called “The Eagle” because of his surname and was known for the way he soared so lightly above his mount while guiding it to victory, especially in big money races.

Their skills may have waned a bit as both hit their fifties, but their presence was never to be discounted even if they were no longer spoken of in awe by their fellow riders. They still had fans, and once in a while they would go on a hot streak reminiscent of their salad days.

For Guce, the end came on a muggy Wednesday evening at the Santa Ana Park on May 17. Riding a longshot in the fourth race of the night, a speed horse named Split Decision, Guce was guiding his horse to the front when all of a sudden, the legs of his mount snapped and he was thrown forward with a gauntlet of horses right behind him.

Several other horses and riders tumbled but it was Guce who bore the brunt of the spill. His spine cracked, and he was immobile for weeks. Recently, his condition improved slightly and he can now move around in a wheelchair but those once-powerful legs that steered thoroughbreds could barely lift his own frail body.

His friend Bobot Aguila was not around to visit as he had gone to Canada to try his luck there. But Aguila missed the local racing scene and with loose ends to tie up back in Manila, he returned home to resume his career.

Less than four months later, on September 10, Aguila would be forcibly exiled to join his cohort on the sidelines when he fell aboard another non-factor, a stayer named Well Noted, in a Sunday evening race at the Santa Ana Park. It was obvious his injury would be more severe as Bobot was immobile after his accident. He would not regain consciousness until weeks later.

Both riders were honored recently as the first two inductees in the local Jockey’s Hall of Fame, and it was certainly bittersweet for their families and fans that these two proud warriors, both superb athletes when they were in their prime, could not rise on their own to acknowledge the adulation of their fans.

And yes, if there is still any doubt left, jockeys are athletes who, pound for pound, could be some of the strongest people in the world.

Butch Maniego is the Executive Director
of Philippine Basketball League.
He has been a sportswriter for 24 years
and a sportscaster for 19