JC / Railbird

Jockeys’ Insurance Archive

The Shame of It

In a sport as rich as racing, that a journeyman jockey like Gary Birzer can be paralyzed in an on-track accident and then find himself burdened with more than $500,000 in medical bills is a scandal. What’s even more scandalous is that the Jockeys’ Guild, the very organization charged with protecting and representing Birzer and his fellow riders, has betrayed its members for the enrichment of one man and his family and cronies — at least, that’s the conclusion I came to after reading the testimony given at Tuesday’s congressional hearing on jockeys’ insurance. Alan at Left at the Gate has all the links and all the damning revelations from yesterday’s hearing.

Posted in Jockeys' Insurance on October 19, 2005

Subpoenas Issued

The US House of Representatives issued two subpoenas to Jockeys’ Guild president Wayne Gertmenian on Tuesday, demanding that management and financial documents from the Guild and Matrix Capital Associates, the consulting firm owned by Gertmenian that has managed the organization since 2001, be turned over to a congressional committee investigating the issue of jockeys’ insurance (Blood-Horse). The documents sought by the committee, headed by Kentucky representative Ed Whitfield, are the same records that Whitfield requested in letters to the Guild and Gertmenian in April and then again in August. “It was pretty clear to us that they were not really being responsive in providing us with documents that we had requested,” said Whitfield. “We think it’s essential we get a complete analysis of how the [Jockeys’ Guild] money’s coming, how it’s being spent” (Lexington Herald-Leader).
Neither Gertmenian nor any Guild representatives have commented on the subpoenas. In response to Whitfield’s August letter to the Guild, counsel Lloyd Ownbey wrote that the committee investigation was “misdirected” and stated that the Guild had provided “huge volumes of documents relevant to this investigation,” specifically, “in excess of one and a half business boxes of documents (covering the past six-plus years of Guild operations).”
Comment: Forget Weightgate. A far bigger scandal is brewing in the Jockeys’ Guild. The apparent unwillingness or inability of the Guild and Gertmenian to provide the documents Whitfield has requested is not only strange, but alarming. At the very least, it suggests that both the Guild and Matrix are afflicted with a case of poor record keeping. At the very worst, it suggests mismanagement. Either is a shame for jockeys, who deserve competent and trustworthy leaders representing their interests.

Posted in Jockeys' Insurance on September 22, 2005

Thursday Eve Notes

I see via Left at the Gate that congressman Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, is most displeased with the response he’s received from the Jockeys’ Guild to his request for documents in an investigation into the matter of jockeys’ insurance. It seems the Guild has dodged (Thoroughbred Times) providing documents relating to president Wayne Gertmenian’s consulting company, Matrix, to which the organization has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in management and real estate fees. In a letter to the Guild, Representative Whitfield asks, among other things, that Gertmenian:

Whitfield set a deadline of August 31 for compliance with his request, or else a subpoena may be issued to get the information. I’m looking forward to Gertmenian’s response — I’ve had the same questions as Whitfield about Matrix since last March and would like to know more about a consulting company that supposedly has been in business for more than 20 years, but has had only two clients (Gertmenian and the Jockeys’ Guild) and which seems to be based out of Gertmenian’s house. Just what is that rent the Guild’s paying?
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One of my personal betting rules is to never back an older horse with established form coming off a new career-best Beyer win. Racetrack crowds love these horses, though, and that short-priced certainty at Saratoga today redeemed race three with its four-horse field.
Thunder Touch won at Saratoga on opening day with an impressive, going away at the wire performance that earned him a new high Beyer of 110 (his previous high was a 102 earned at Belmont in May). Although obviously in form and a talented horse, there was no way Thunder Touch was going to repeat his last race, and a bounce back to his usual put him squarely on the same level as his evenly-matched competition. It didn’t matter — Thunder Touch was bet down to even money. Mr. Whitestone, a Monmouth shipper whose last win came in November at Aqueduct, was 2-1. Spooky Mulder, who ran second to Thunder Touch on opening day, was 3-1. Always Noble, coming off a win at Delaware on August 1, was the longshot of the field at 6-1. It was the easiest play of the day. Always Noble won by a neck after dueling a game Spooky Mulder down the stretch and paid a nice $14.80. Thunder Touch ran last.

Posted in Jockeys' Insurance, Saratoga on August 18, 2005

Charles Town Insurance Max $50,000

Matt Hegarty reports in the Daily Racing Form today that Charles Town’s jockey accident insurance is capped at $50,000, not the more standard $100,000 or $1 million found at most tracks. Apprentice rider Shannon Campbell was paralyzed in an accident at Charles Town last Saturday. A fundrasier is being planned to help with her medical bills. Jockeys’ Guild vice-president Albert Fiss, reacting to the news that Campbell’s coverage is limited to $50,000, said, “You would think that West Virginia of all places, with what happened last year and the money coming from slots, would do the morally right thing.” The Jockeys’ Guild allowed its catastrophic insurance to lapse in 2002, ostensibly because of the cost (in 2002, the Guild paid $466,000 for $1 million of coverage). Fiss acknowledged that the plan “would have covered Campbell if it had been in place last week.”
Related: At a forum on the jockey insurance issue held in Kentucky on Thursday, an insurance executive called the situation a “powder keg” (MSNBC).

Posted in Jockeys' Insurance on July 15, 2005