Pact for Jockeys Is Called Near : Negotiations: President of Santa Anita says details are 99% completed. A strike probably will be averted.

After Wednesday’s entries were drawn, showing that all of the important riders at Santa Anita were supporting a Jockeys’ Guild walkout, Cliff Goodrich, president of the track, announced Sunday that there is a 99% chance that a strike will be averted.

Goodrich participated in a conference telephone call Sunday involving Jockeys’ Guild representatives and negotiators from the Thoroughbred Racing Assns., the trade group that represents most of the country’s major tracks.

“The television rights issue was put to bed,” Goodrich said. “The TRA has agreed to sign the historical language.”

The guild has said that for more than 20 years jockeys have waived their broadcast rights in exchange for the TRA supplying health and accident insurance. But the TRA/guild insurance agreement will expire Tuesday, and before Sunday the TRA questioned the existence of any broadcast rights and sought to exclude them from the agreement.

The guild filed a $15-million suit in Los Angeles Superior Court last week over the radio-TV rights and other publicity considerations.

Goodrich expects the Jockeys’ Guild and the TRA to complete the contract today.

“By signing this,” Goodrich said, “the guild agrees that the agreement cannot be used against us in a suit. Within 24 hours, this will be resolved. We’ll have a deal. We’re 99% there.”

In a memo to his tracks, Chris Scherf, executive vice president of the TRA, said: “The jockeys’ broadcast rights or claim to rights is not being usurped. Furthermore, if a court decided before the expiration of the three-year (insurance) agreement that the jockeys do not have rights, the TRA tracks will continue to provide the agreement considerations of insurance.”

John Giovanni, national manager of the Jockeys’ Guild, which represents about 95% of the country’s riders, could not be reached for comment. At Santa Anita, Chris McCarron, a member of the guild’s board of directors, said: “I’ve been told by Cliff Goodrich to be reasonably optimistic. Therefore, I am optimistic.”

The major tracks now running--Santa Anita, Aqueduct, Hialeah, Hawthorne and Bay Meadows--would be hurt most by a national jockeys walkout.