Churchill Downs Finds Its Jockeys

Jockeys have been named on all 247 of the horses that were entered today and Thursday at Churchill Downs, where track management dismissed 15 riders earlier this week after they said they wouldn’t ride.

The 15 jockeys, who include Rafael Bejarano and Robby Albarado, two of the leading riders in the U.S., have been banned for the rest of the Churchill meet, which ends Nov. 27. The Jockeys’ Guild has announced its support for this group.

The guild and the riders, many of them guild members, are frustrated because, they say, the industry has been lax in helping jockeys buy high-priced insurance that would cover them more fully for accidents on the track. The guild says that it has been unable to afford coverage for its members since its most recent policy lapsed in 2002.

Twenty-six riders are listed to ride the 121 horses on today’s 10-race card at Churchill. Pat Day, a Hall of Famer, is among those scheduled to ride, but many of the other jockeys are hardly household names.

They include Rodney Trader, who recently has been more of a morning exercise rider than a jockey; Tammy Lee Fox, who has had fewer than 100 mounts in the last two years, and apprentices Juan Molina and Jordan Charkoudian, who are seldom used by trainers at Churchill. Trader has nine mounts and Fox seven.

Churchill fixtures Eddie Martin Jr., John McKee and top apprentice Brian Hernandez Jr. are scheduled to ride in all 10 races.

“The behavior of Churchill Downs is morally reprehensible,” Albert Fiss, vice president of the Jockeys’ Guild, said in a statement. “The depraved indifference of the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority and track officials must be addressed immediately. These [insurance] topics have been under discussion for two years, with no improvement in existing conditions.”

A faction of the guild is displeased with the leadership of current guild management. Eddie King, who rides on the New Jersey circuit and has been a vocal critic of guild management, said Tuesday that he had been ousted as a member of the guild’s board of directors during a conference call Sunday night. King was guild treasurer until late last year.

“I participated in the conference call,” King said. “There was some talk about throwing me out of the guild altogether, but that didn’t happen. I guess this is what you can expect when you start asking questions about finances that no one wants to answer.”

Wayne Gertmenian, president of the guild since 2001, has said that independent audits have shown there has been no wrongdoing. Day, who had been guild president, quit when John Giovanni was ousted as national manager and Gertmenian took over.