A NUMBER OF JOCKEYS and some youngsters aspiring to be members of the profession have been advised to stay away from drugs and to pay special attention to their deportment and behaviour.

This advice was given by Paulavette Atkinson of the National Council for Substance Abuse and Stephanie Goddard, a consultant on etiquette and good manners, at a seminar at the Barbados Turf Club's Garrison headquarters on Saturday.

Also addressing the seminar was Dr Mark Alleyne, nutritionist attached to the Warrens Polyclinic.
He advised the youngsters on diet and nutrition.

In her presentation on drugs, Atkinson started with alcohol, which she said though legal, was dangerous since it interfered with one's balance, one's sense of reason and was also injurious to one's physical health.

She said alcohol was addictive and advised the aspiring young jockeys to stay away from it.

She then turned her attention to tobacco, which
she said, like alcohol, was very addictive and equally injurious to health.

Atkinson said tobacco was a threat not only to the smoker, but also to those within inhaling distance of the user since empirical evidence has shown that side stream smoke was equally dangerous.

Cocaine was the next drug to come under her microscope and she told her young audience this
was probably the most dangerous of the drugs under discussion as it affected individuals both mentally
and physically. The drug, whether it was raw
or "crack", was a mind-altering drug and should
be shunned completely.

Atkinson then exhibited equipment used for either snorting or injecting cocaine and told the jockeys that even to have such equipment in one's possession was illegal. She also warned against marijuana saying
that, contrary to a popular belief among young people like themselves, marijuana was also detrimental
to one's well-being.

Meanwhile Goddard chastised the jockeys for their poor deportment at the track and their overuse of foul language in normal conversation. She reminded them that being a jockey, even if only an exercise one, was also a job and they should be well dressed at all times when on the job.

Explaining that well dressed did not mean only wearing a jacket and a collar and tie, she added that
it also did not mean wearing an old pants with
a rumpled shirt hanging out of it, and with some rickety looking slippers on.

She gave them pointers on how to dress on mornings at exercise; on race days both coming to and leaving the track; how to interact with the trainers and owners or his/her representative in the parade ring before the start of a race; how to behave when at the starting gates and when appearing before the stewards; and the importance of keeping the jockey's room clean and tidy on race days, among other things. (TE)