El turf como arena de disputa social: Jockeys y propietarios en el hipódromo argentino de fines del siglo XIX

Abstract

Entre la década de 1880 y hasta los años de la Gran Depresión, el turf fue el principal y más popular espectáculo deportivo de la Argentina. El hipódromo también constituyó el escenario en el que, en los años del cambio de siglo, emergió la figura del deportista profesional. Las narraciones sobre la profesionalización del deporte argentino suelen tomar por objeto lo sucedido en el fútbol, sin advertir que en el turf este proceso ya se encontraba bien maduro un par de décadas antes.

From the 1880s to the 1930s, horse racing was Argentina's most popular spectator sport. It was in the racecourse, not in the football pitch, that professional sport first emerged. A popular activity in a horse-abundant country such as Argentina, horseracing had strong plebeian roots. In the late nineteenth century, however, the wealthy developed a keen interest in the sport, and invested time, energy and money in order to promote and patronise English-style races. This article analyses some aspects of the transformation of horse racing from a popular into an elitist and professionalized sport. It suggests that the enforcement of new rules that forced professional jockeys to wear standarised clothes, behave "properly" and shave their faces were designed to lower their social status and challenge their sporting standing. The paper explores the meaning of these disciplinary measures and the aggrieved jockeys' response, which gave rise to the 1893 "strike of the moustache". Finally, it shows that the late nineteenth century racecourse was an arena of social struggle between elite and popular conceptions of the sport, in which larger questions of authority, classification and hierarchy were at stake.