Why are a majority of professional jockeys latino?

Question

Obviously one reason is because they are small, but why else?

Answer 1

mostly Latinos are on the small side, and they're also very hard workers. Not many Americans work as hard as they do (Cajuns seeming to be the exception to that rule)

Answer 2

they have guts and heart....watch as soon as one of our top jockeys gets

hurt real bad..they don't take the chances they used too. but old Jose and Juan

will still ride lights out if they have too.

Answer 3

Thats really the only reason.

Answer 4

To become a jockey, you have to have experience working with horses-- specifically with racehorses-- because you need to have connections with people in the industry who are willing to put you up on their horses.

Most of the Latino jockeys who ride in America got started working for family members or friends who were in the industry.  That made it easier for them to get work at the track and to find someone who would apprentice them.  Also true:  most of the Latinos in the industry have a realistic understanding of having to work their way up, doing things like grooming or breaking yearlings or riding workouts, before they're ever going to be given a chance to ride in races.  This is not true for people who come in "cold" with starry-eyed dreams of becoming a champion jockey and who have never worked in a training center or on the backside of a racetrack.  If you talk to trainers on the backstretch, most of them will tell you that when Americans ask them for a job, they want to start at the middle or top of things-- an assistant trainer or immediately getting apprenticed as a jockey or something.  

Becoming a jockey is something very hard to do if you have no connections within the industry and aren't willing to put in a lot of hours "paying your dues" doing hard work for very low pay.  Latinos are willing to pay their dues and have the connections to get the entry-level jobs.