Tuesday Hit-and-Run
– The Jockeys’ Guild continues to recover from the frayed relationships and depleted coffers of the Wayne Gertmenian era. “It has been difficult,” said jockey Jon Court, one of 27 jockeys elected to the Guild’s Senate last week. “Some people like to hang on. But we were literally able to take that skeleton and throw it out.”
– At Woodbine, 35-year-old apprentice Dean Deverell wins four races in a week.
– Happy Ticket will face top older distaffer Oonagh Maccool on Saturday in the Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs. “Obviously, the other mare is awfully good,” said owner Stewart Madison. “But one thing I know for sure is that my horse will definitely show up.”
– In the first Belmont since 2000 without the Derby or Preakness winner entered, the race’s TV ratings dropped 22% from 2005.
– What people really want to know about racing: “The people out there want to know what a horse eats, how a horse exercises, how he lives, what she does when she’s not training or racing. They long to find out about the people on horses’ backs or at their sides. People want to read Michael Matz’ life story. They want to hear what Edgar Prado thinks. They want Peter Brette to tell them what Barbaro feels like when he trots. What does a Kentucky Derby winner trot like? Now there’s something they can identify with at the PTA meeting.”
Noted: March 22
– In today’s Derby Watch: Corinthian is off the Derby Trail; weekend Beyer numbers are out.
– Speed genes found? “A British scientist yesterday claimed to have made a ‘historic breakthrough‘ in the study of thoroughbred genetics, after a six-year research project produced the first proof of a relationship between specific genes and the individual performances of racehorses.”
– Kentucky congressman Ed Whitfield, who led hearings into the the jockeys’ insurance issue last fall, said that legislation amending the Interstate Horseracing Act to provide workers’ compensation to jockeys and backstretch workers could be ready in four weeks.
– Rockport Harbor’s injury-plagued racing career is over. Owner Rick Porter announced on Monday that Rockport was done racing and headed to a career at stud because of the foot injury that’s dogged the colt since the 2004 Remsen: “The wall of the hoof is cracked and the consensus is that he would need a minimum of 90 days turnout … There are no guarantees that the foot will heal 100%. Therefore, I have decided to retire him.”
– Steve Haskin joins Paul Daley in wondering why Mom’s Command isn’t on the Hall of Fame ballot this year. “Mom’s Command has slipped through the cracks again. After having her name on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2005, the 1985 New York filly Triple Crown winner was conspicuous by her absence this year.”
Guild Sues Gertmenian
Jockeys’ Guild officials opened the organization’s annual assembly this Monday with a “painful” accounting of the Guild’s state at the time president Wayne Gertmenian was fired:
In reality, the Guild was stripped of most of its assets. “In fact, on the day [Gertmenian and former vice president Albert Fiss] were fired, they emptied out the bank accounts and wrote themselves $100,000 checks,” said Broad. “We were nearly bankrupt.”
In an effort to recoup some of the losses, a plan to sue Gertmenian and the rest of the Guild’s former management team was also discussed on Monday. Although Guild attorney Barry Broad said the lawsuit was likely to be filed within the next month, one was actually filed in California early this week.
The Guild is searching for a new national manager, with an ad seeking applicants running in the print edition of the Daily Racing Form. “Impeccable integrity” is required.
Guild Missing More than Money
Yet another lawyer for Wayne Gertmenian claims that the checks the former Jockeys’ Guild president cashed the day he was fired were for money owed to him, reports Liz Mullen in the Sports Business Journal: “It was back pay and it was owed to him under his contract,” said attorney Mark Werksman. Guild lawyer Barry Broad alleges that not only did Gertmenian cash the checks without permission, but that he ran off with Guild memorabilia, including Bill Shoemaker’s boots and a bust of Eddie Arcaro. “We would like our money back,” Broad said. “We would also like Willie Shoemaker’s boots and Eddie Arcaro’s head back.”
The ongoing scandal is recapped in a lengthy LA Times article today. There’s not much new information (I’m assuming anyone landing on this site has a passing knowledge of the story), except for this bit:
Pepperdine, where Gertmenian, 66, is a longtime economics professor, is investigating questions about his resume. In an October hearing, U.S. representatives ridiculed his claim that he worked on U.S.-Soviet relations for the National Security Council during the Nixon and Ford administrations, while another organization told The Times that Gertmenian’s claim that he had served on its board of directors was false.
Looking for the link to Gertmenian’s resume (here), I came across this article from the Thoroughbred Times in 2001, when Gertmenian was brought into the Guild, which makes several familiar points about the fired president and his consulting company, Matrix Capital Associates:
Matrix is run out of Gertmenian’s Monrovia, California, home, Gaston said…. Matrix associates will not answer questions about its operation, Gaston said, and the company has been forced to put a “lockdown on the media” and others in the Thoroughbred industry because Gertmenian and Matrix employees and their families have been harassed….
Gertmenian’s resume on the Pepperdine Web site states that he held governmental positions during the Watergate era. In the 1975 Congressional Directory, he was listed as a special assistant to the secretary of Housing and Urban Development in ’74. President Richard M. Nixon’s former HUD Secretary, James T. Lynn, said that he did not remember Gertmenian. Nor did HUD Deputy Secretary James Mitchell or Northwestern University professor Donald Haider, a former White House fellow who worked closely with Lynn and Mitchell….
Gertmenian’s resume states that he functioned as chief detente negotiator in Moscow for the head of the National Security Council and as an emissary to Tehran for the secretary of commerce, but those duties could not be confirmed. John Stempel, Ph.D., director of the Patterson School of Diplomacy at the University of Kentucky, spent 24 years in the United States Foreign Service focusing on political and economic affairs in Africa, India, and Iran. From July 1975 through the summer of 1979, three months after the Iranian revolution, Stempel served in Tehran as the deputy chief of the political section for the State Department and was acting political consul.
Stempel said that most of the files for the U.S. Iranian embassy had been sealed and that seeking information that might be contained in those files would be “pretty hard.” He said, however, that if Gertmenian had been in Tehran during the years he served there he would have known him. “I can guarantee you he never showed up in Tehran as an emissary of anybody,” Stempel said….
Gertmenian’s statement that he serves on the board of directors of AmRus Life Insurance Co., a firm that is not listed with the California Department of Insurance, also could not be verified.
I am flabbergasted. How did this man manage to assume the Guild’s presidency and operate without much oversight for the past four years with this much stinking about his background from the start? Should there have been questions about Guild operations long before the October congressional hearings forced the matter?
“Increasing Fiscal Neglect”
The Jockeys’ Guild released results of an internal investigation into the Guild’s financial condition on Thursday, and the news, as might be expected, was ugly: According to interim president Darrell Haire, nearly $2.1 million was inappropriately spent by former management, most of the Guild accounts were depleted by November 15 (when then president Wayne Gertmenian and most of the Guild’s management was fired), and a number of unpaid bills have been piling up for the past six months:
“The investigation reveals an apparent pattern of increasing fiscal neglect extending for at least the past 18 months,” said Haire. “While at this time it cannot be determined with certainty exactly where the money went, it is generally believed that the money was inappropriately used to fund the organization’s daily operations and for paying health insurance claims.”
The Guild expects to file a lawsuit against Gertmenian in an effort to recoup some of the losses; the FBI and local police are also investigating. Gertmenian’s attorney, Mitchell Egers, said “his client did nothing irresponsible.”
Guild Meets With Track Execs
The Jockeys’ Guild met with racetrack executives in a five hour meeting at Churchill Downs on Thursday. “It was an opportunity to sit down with the new guild leadership and representatives and to get together face-to-face and talk about some things,” said Churchill spokesman John Asher. No further details of the meeting were released. Another is planned for sometime in January 2006.
The Guild almost moved offices this week, in an effort to cut any remaining ties to fired president Wayne Gertmenian’s consulting company, Matrix Capital Associates. “Among the many self-serving things that Dr. Gertmenian did is negotiate an agreement that the Jockeys’ Guild would not only rent the space they occupied, but rent a separate space that Matrix occupied,” said Guild attorney Barry Broad. Rent on the old offices were $4,000 per month. The new offices are $1,706 plus utilities.
The recent shakeup at the Guild has left a lot of questions: How will the organization rebuild? What’s next for the Guild? Ask interim president Darrell Haire.
Guild Owes Jockeys $440K
Every bit of news that comes out about the state of the Jockeys’ Guild post-Wayne Gertmenian points to an organization in a deepening crisis. This week, Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal reports that the Guild owes jockeys $440,000 because its former management used members’ savings accounts to fund operating expenses. Guild attorney Barry Broad, who has accused Gertmenian of leaving the Guild in “financial shambles,” said only $200,000 remains in the organization’s operating account as of last week, which means the Guild is in the red $240,000 just in money owed to riders. (Never mind the unpaid office rent and health insurance premiums or Gary Birzer’s lawsuit.) “The problem now is if everybody wanted their money back at once, the Guild would probably be bankrupt,” said Broad. [Thanks to Robert Colton for the pointer to Mullen’s article.]
A Less Than Graceful Exit
The Jockeys’ Guild fired president Wayne Gertmenian following an emergency meeting of the Guild Senate on Tuesday, and the disgraced professor didn’t take his dismissal well. It was reported earlier this week that Gertmenian and similarly ousted Guild vice president Albert Fiss scuffled with jockeys at the Guild’s offices on Tuesday and now there are allegations that Gertmenian wrote checks totaling $217,000 to himself and other “employees” of his consulting company, Matrix Capital Associates, on the same day that he was fired, despite a hold that had been placed on checks larger than $200 drawn on the Guild account. No charges have been filed in Tuesday’s altercation, but police are investigating the checks. “It may be embezzlement or it may be something they were entitled to,” said Monrovia police lieutenant Richard Wagnon. Given that Gertmenian testified in the first congressional hearing on jockeys’ insurance held in October that he was the only employee of Matrix, which was contracted to manage the Guild, it’s difficult to imagine how the apparent money-grab could be construed as a legitimate business act.
—
The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held its second hearing on jockeys’ insurance on Thursday and took testimony from racetrack operators and horsemen on the issue. Representative Ed Whitfield, who chaired the hearing, said federal legislation could be necessary to impose standard safety and insurance requirements across the industry. “A lot of interest groups do not want their turf touched, … [but] there are a lot of strong arguments for some uniformity and for some federal oversight and involvement,” said Whitfield. Racing executives disagree: “Trying to get a one-size-fits-all solution could be damaging,” said TRA vice president Christopher Scherf.
Another Call for Dr. G’s Removal
A group of permanently disabled Jockeys’ Guild members, troubled by the disappearance of the disabled jockeys’ fund and the unsatisfactory answers given by Guild officials to questions about the organization’s management, have sent an open letter to the Guild’s board of directors calling for the removal of president Wayne Gertmenian and the reinstatement of former manager John Giovanni in his stead:
Dr. Gertmenian has … failed to prove himself as a man who could be trusted to do what’s best for the Guild … We badly need a leader who understands and is familiar with the business of the Jockeys’ Guild to lead us through this crisis, to put the Guild back on track and salvage what is left of our organization.
An emergency meeting of the Guild Senate to discuss management has been scheduled for November 15 and more than 200 jockeys across the country have signed petitions calling for a change in leadership. Asked if he had any intention of stepping down, Gertmenian said, “I promised everybody as I went around the country the heat would fall on my head and I wouldn’t quit.” How noble.
House Schedules Second Hearing
The congressional subcommittee investigating jockeys’ insurance has scheduled a second hearing on the issue for November 17. The witness list has not been finalized yet. The first hearing was held on October 18 and included testimony from jockeys and Jockeys’ Guild officials, who answered questions about the organization’s finances and the 2002 lapse of a catastrophic insurance policy.
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