Jockeys’ Union Seeks Racing Board Changes

A lawyer for the Jockeys’ Guild said Thursday that the guild would try to introduce legislation in Sacramento that would prevent those with a financial stake in racing from serving on the California Horse Racing Board.

“It’s a serious issue,” said Barry Broad, a Sacramento attorney who represented the guild at the racing board’s monthly meeting in Arcadia. “It doesn’t make sense that someone should have a financial interest in the industry and then in so many areas be responsible for telling that industry what to do.”

Several members of the seven-member board are prominent owners and breeders of horses, including John Harris, the board chairman, and Bill Bianco, the vice chairman.

Broad also said that the guild, which represents about 1,200 riders nationally, would seek legislation allowing jockeys to carry more weight when they ride in California.

Broad left the meeting frustrated that the board, which began discussing the weight issue last summer, had taken no action Thursday.

“The attitude toward the riders is paternalistic,” Broad said to the board. “What you’re talking about doing is a sop, a gesture. It’s not enough, and it’s not right.

“We wanted to solve this problem within the industry, where it’s a serious public-health issue, an issue that’s as serious as drugging horses, but now we’re going to the legislature and tell our story there.”

Tom Robbins, director of racing at Del Mar, told the board that track racing offices were assigning 118-pound minimum weights for horses in most races, compared to 112 or 113 pounds previously. The racing board has been wrestling with the weight issue since last summer.

The Jockeys’ Guild’s announced march on Sacramento jibes with the oft-silent national organization’s recent militant approach toward accident insurance. In five states, including California, riders are covered by workers’ compensation in the event of catastrophic injuries. Elsewhere, however, the accident coverage has a $100,000 cap under an industry-funded policy.

The guild’s own policy, which had a $1-million cap, was allowed to lapse in 2002.

In November, 14 jockeys refused to ride at Churchill Downs, and were banned by management for the rest of the meet, and a similar group of riders walked out at Hoosier Park in Anderson, Ind. Hoosier is owned by Churchill.

“The industry has never liked the jockeys to be assertive,” Broad said after the meeting. “Jockeys have always been viewed as the property of the industry -- on the one hand, they need to be taken care of, but on the other hand, they should occasionally be spanked.”

In California, the guild has been receiving about $1 million annually to help cover health and welfare insurance for riders and their families. One of the sources for the money is the tracks’ uncashed parimutuel tickets.

Payment of $950,000 was delayed last year until the guild resubmitted more detailed financial statements to the racing board.

“For the last 10 years, there’s been talk that this money is not being used for California jockeys,” Broad said. “The talk has never turned out to be true, and I have every reason to believe that it’s not happening now.”

In a significant departure from recent practice, Broad invited the racing board to conduct an audit of the guild with the board’s own auditor.

Under the regime of Wayne Gertmenian, who became president of the guild in a housecleaning of the organization in 2001, members themselves have sometimes been discouraged in seeking financial information. Eddie King, a former guild treasurer who was ousted as a member last year, has filed a federal lawsuit in New Jersey that asks the Monrovia-based guild to allow him to examine the corporate books.

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The racing board passed a milkshake-testing rule, but it can’t be implemented until a related bill introduced in Sacramento has been passed by the legislature. The board’s rule makes a milkshake -- a sodium bicarbonate mixture designed to reduce fatigue in a horse -- a Class III violation, punishable by loss of purse and possible fine and/or suspension. Industry leaders expect the bill to pass in a few months. California tracks have been testing for milkshakes for more than a year, and at the current meet, Santa Anita has a house rule that calls for sanctions of violators.