By Ray Paulick
A Paulick Report reader commenting under the pseudonym of “another young owner” made the following observation in connection with yesterday’s article that surveyed top executive salaries at 18 industry non-profit associations: “Over $3.75 million a year and our industry has never been worse off… we have some great leaders!”
Actually, the aggregate of the 18 salaries was $3,911,096 and didn’t include bonuses, retirement plan contributions or other benefits.
But the point made by “another young owner” was not lost on me. When you consider that executive salary should only be a small fraction of an organization’s expenditures and that there are many more associations and businesses not included in our survey, it makes you wonder: What exactly are we getting for all that money?
Do we really benefit from and need a TRA and an NTRA, a TOBA, an HBPA and a THA, a TOC and a CTT, a Jockey Club and a Jockeys’ Guild? For the ultimate absurdity consider that we used to have two national organizations for racing regulatory bodies—neither of which really had the authority to do anything.
Perhaps when racing was healthy—a regional or local sport that didn’t participate in interstate commerce–there was little need to consolidate some of these redundant organizations. But today, as revenues are in serious decline among racetracks, horse owners, breeders and in virtually every other industry sector, the status quo will not work.
But don’t take it from me. Owner and breeder Satish Sanan, a no-nonsense businessman who has closely examined racing’s organizationally littered landscape, believes the industry will continue in a downward spiral unless it commits to changing its structure.
Sanan, a weekly guest on Steve Byk’s satellite radio show, “At the Races,” has been speaking out in his regular “Our Industry” segment about the need for a new structure. (Click here to listen.) Yesterday, in reaction to the Paulick Report’s salary survey, Sanan said: “If you look at the so-called alphabet soup organizations from TOBA to NTRA to horsemen’s associations, the THA, and the (Thoroughbred) Owners of California, you can add all that crap up, and collectively we are spending millions of dollars. Each one is doing one or two good functions, but not seriously impacting the growth of the industry. It goes back to, do we need this kind of structure and what the hell is it doing for our industry? We need a single structure and in that structure we have got to find a way to generate more revenue, put more money back into the business, hire the best talent.
“When the NFL and NBA created leagues, they brought people in, paid them millions of dollars, and put governance and structure in place and marketed the hell out of their sport and nobody complains about that because they bring in hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, there is not an organization with the exception of maybe individual racetracks that are customer focused, customer centric, customer-service centric.”
Sanan said Breeders’ Cup–where he is on the board of directors and has led a strategic planning committee that is set to announce its final recommendations at a board meeting on Thursday—is the only association on the horsemen’s side of the industry that has focused on revenue growth. “I do not know of another organization that is tasked with growing the business,” he told Byk.
“The leadership of our industry should be thinking like a think tank and working together, talking about how do we transform this business, how do we go back to how this business used to be, how do we attract new owners, keep the existing owners, keep the existing horseplayers, have them bet more and make it more attractive to them and market the sport so we can attract new ones. I’m at a loss as to whose job it is and who thinks about these things on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Can you name somebody? I (expletive deleted) can’t.”
Byk couldn’t either.
“We have got to streamline our industry,” Sanan continued. “There should be one horsemen’s organization, not 15. Period. There should be one panel that focuses on nothing but all the issues that are integrity-related: safety, medication, tote and wagering, and build confidence so we can attract new people. We need the best of minds with the most creative and innovative marketing programs to attract new horseplayers, new fans and market the hell out of the sport. Shoot, if this was my company I would be doing it.”
And that begs another question: Whose company is it? Who will take the lead here? Which organization will dissolve or be willing to merge with someone else. Which alphabet soup executive will focus more time on doing what’s right for the greater good of the industry instead of fighting to maintain whatever small chunk of turf he controls? Many of these executives are bright people, but the absence of a common-sense structure and industry-wide collaboration is a lethal combination.
There are too many chefs cooking our alphabet soup, and no one is buying it.
By Ray Paulick
“I’ve been doing this since 1979, and I just can’t get a fair shake.” So says Michael Gill, North America’s leading owner by money and races won on four different occasions who finds himself in a familiar position–at the center of controversy, after Penn National jockeys voted Saturday night not to ride in races if Gill’s horses are entered.
The jockeys took the initiative following the fifth race at Penn National, when a Gill-trained horse, Laughing Moon, blew a suspensory and fell after the finish, causing another horse to go down. Gill had a runner entered in the sixth race, but that horse was scratched. Gill-owned horses entered later this week also have been scratched, and Penn National officials said Monday they temporarily have banned his horses from the entry box, according to bloodhorse.com. Jockeys complained that an unusually high number of horses owned by Gill have either broken down or suffered injuries in Penn National races in the last few months, putting riders at risk. One of Gill’s horses broke down on Thursday night, and Laughing Moon became the 15th runner since October to break down, pull up during the race, be eased, or return lame following the finish.
Penn National officials said seven of Gill’s horses broke down in 2009, a figure that Gill disputes. But even if that number is correct, he said, he believes his percentage of breakdowns is in line or lower than that of other stables that compete at the Pennsylvania track.
I was unable to reach Gill over the weekend prior to publication of Monday’s Paulick Report article on the Penn National incident, but I contacted him Monday at his Mortgage Specialists office in New Hampshire. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy with the actions of the jockeys or with the unwelcome publicity, and in a 30-minute, emotional interview touched on a wide range of subjects. Among the revelations from the 54-year-old Gill were:
- He has fired Darrel Delahoussaye, the trainer of Laughing Moon. “They (Penn National) put a gun to my head, and someone had to take the bullet,” he said. “I feel bad about this. But if I lose the (49) stalls at Penn National, I’m out of business.”
- Some time last year, Gill hired former Oaklawn Park and Louisiana Downs leading trainer Cole Norman. Norman was released from prison in January 2009 after serving time for negligent homicide, for his role in a fatal car crash in which he was under the influence of prescription pain killers. Norman works at Gill’s Elk Creek Ranch in Oxford, Pa., which is used as a training center for horses that race at Penn National, Philadelphia Park, Laurel, Mountaineer Park and Charles Town. “He’s a good trainer,” said Gill.
- Though he said he has lost tens of millions of dollars over the years, Gill claims he didn’t “put one penny of my money into the business last year. I can go to the IRS and say this is a business, it isn’t a hobby.” Gill said he is in a five-year audit with the Internal Revenue Service over whether or not his racing stable is a legitimate business.
- Apart from the horses that broke down at Penn National in 2009, Gill claims he had only one other horse break down in a race. “I ran 2,247 horses last year,” he said. “If a guy had 100 starts and one horse breaks down, is that unacceptable? We’re running in the middle of winter on muddy tracks.
- Gill denies “running sore horses,” and said he didn’t have a single bad test in 2009. “And was anything found in any of my horses after they broke down? Nothing.” I asked Gill about widespread rumors that shock-wave therapy is used at Elk Creek Ranch on horses close to a race. “I never use shock-wave therapy. Never have had a machine. Never, ever used it once, and believe me, plenty of guys have tried to sell me the machines. I don’t believe in them.” He also said he would “open the farm to anyone to inspect it. They can go over every horse I have.”
- He attributes much of the stable’s success to the fact he gives all of his horses medication for Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis, or EPM, a neurological disease. “A good 80% of horses have EPM,” he said. He also has throat surgeries, or myectomies, performed on many of the horses he claims because “with EPM, one side of the flap (in the epiglottis) is gone, and the other half doubles in size. Then it closes up. The surgery helps them breathe.”
- His stable, at one time consisting of 450 horses in 2009, was reduced to 220 and he is in the process of reducing it to 120. “I’m still downsizing,” he said. Furthermore, Gill claims that “all of the horses go to retirement programs.” He wasn’t specific as to where they go. “I give good homes to them,” he said. “I’ve given away 20 horses in the last 30 days for $1.”
- Gill didn’t say he planned to take legal action against Penn National, the jockey colony or the Jockeys’ Guild, but said “Do you know when people organize against one person, that’s a significant lawsuit. Does anybody understand that? I’m tired of suing racetracks—and winning, by the way, every effing time.” He said the jockeys took the action–reported to be a unanimous vote—because “it’s a very closed community at Penn National; a lot of good old boys. I went in there and won all these races, and I’m winning with only two jockeys.”
- Though he lives and works far away in New Hampshire, Gill said he keeps tabs on the stable both at the training farm and the track. “There’s not a race that goes off that I don’t see,” he said. “I have cameras in the barn that go right to my office. I turn around and see every race. I do what I can to be able to run both businesses.”
Why, I asked Gill, is he still in the business, if he thinks he is so mistreated and so misunderstood? “I love the competition. I love the animal. I am a competitor. I am that $5,000 broke down racehorse. I’m a raw competitor with bad knees and sore neck. What better place to compete than in horse racing, and I don’t even gamble on these horses.”
Gill continues to be denied stalls at many tracks, and doesn’t understand why he isn’t appreciated for his involvement in the game and for “showing the industry that you can make money doing this. Of course, if people find out they don’t have to buy a $1-million yearling to make money, do you think they’ll spend money at those sales?”
I suggested to him that people spending that kind of money are looking to win big races during the Triple Crown or at the Breeders’ Cup, not $5,000 claiming races in the dead of winter. “That’s the lottery mentality,” he said.
He turned the tables and asked me a question: “Why don’t you like me?” I said I thought he was arrogant and used his horses as a means to an end. “You’re mistaking arrogance with competitiveness,” he said. It was clearly an argument I wasn’t going to win.
“Look,” he said. “I came from a seminary, had no money, didn’t go to college. I worked harder than everybody else to get what I have. I started my mortgage company in a one-bedroom apartment, and my living room was my office. I loved horse racing and turned around and invested my money. I go to work every day and haven’t had a vacation for as long as I remember.
“I just don’t understand: What have I done that’s so wrong?”
By Ray Paulick
Every kid should be so lucky to have parents like Sandy and Beth Straight.
“They are very inspirational people,” said Nancy LaSala, executive director of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.
The Straights are parents of 23-year-old twin sons, Michael and Matthew, who were living out their dream together as professional Thoroughbred jockeys until that dream turned into a nightmare in a split second on Aug. 26. That’s the day Michael Straight suffered severe spinal and head injuries in an Arlington Park racing accident. The lives of the family from Albany, N.Y., took a dramatic and tragic change.
Sandy and Beth Straight were watching the race at the Albany OTB parlor. Matthew was riding in Kentucky. All of them knew immediately that this was a bad spill. Arlington Park chairman Dick Duchossois dispatched his private jet to New York to bring Michael’s parents to the hospital. Matthew didn’t need to be told. He got in his car and began driving to Chicago within minutes of the accident.
Sandy and Beth Straight put their lives on hold and have remained with their son in Chicago since August. Every day they come to the hospital, first at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge and now at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where Michael was moved Oct. 11 and is now undergoing occupational, physical and speech therapy. They are there from nine in the morning till seven at night many days, offering support, love and hope to their son. “It’s one day at a time Michael,” Beth Straight said.
The Straights aren’t wealthy people; they work for the state of New York’s labor department—or used to until Michael was injured. But thanks to fellow riders, friends, family, people in the horse industry and organizations like the Jockey Club Foundation, the Don MacBeth Fund and the Jockeys’ Guild, they are getting able to stay with Michael. Right now, the situation is grim. “No one knows,” Sandy Straight said. “The spine is a mystery. You just can’t give up hope.”
Matthew has been there for his twin, too, spending as much time with him as he can. “He likes us to be around,” Sandy said, “but there’s nothing that lifts his spirits as much as seeing his brother.” Earlier this week, Matthew took Michael out for lunch and cruised the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue, not far from the Rehabilitation Institute.
Michael and Matthew Straight have always been best friends, and they both grew up dreaming of becoming jockeys. Sandy Straight talked about how as young boys he’d seen them straddling the back of a couch, using pillows for saddles and crouching low while driving their mounts to the wire in an imaginary race. When they were nine, the boys went from riding the couch to practicing on an Equicizer, the simulated riding device developed by jockey Frank Lovato and used by professional jockeys to get back in riding shape after taking time off. At 12, Michael and Matthew learned about an organization started by the late Trudy McCaffery, “Kids to the Cup,” which offered expense paid visits to tracks hosting major races around the country including the Breeders’ Cup. Getting a close-up look at their sport through the “Kids to the Cup” program cemented their desire to ride.
Eventually they went to the North American Riding Academy that Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron established at the Kentucky Horse Park, Matthew graduating in 2007 and Michael the following year. As required by the NARA curriculum, Michael served an apprenticeship, working in the stable of trainer Wesley Ward. He launched his career earlier this year, winning with his first mount at Tampa Bay Downs on March 6. He had 39 career wins when Im No Gentleman, the horse he was riding Aug. 26 apparently clipped heels and fell, throwing Michael to the Polytrack surface awkwardly. The horse, which apparently died from a broken neck, did not fall onto or roll over the jockey.
One of the Chicago-area owners Michael rode for, Dan Sullivan, organized a fundraiser for the jockey and his family on Oct. 25 at a restaurant Sullivan owns in a Chicago suburb. “Dan Sullivan has been incredible,” Sandy said. “He’s done so much for us. One of his kids wrote that letter up there on the wall,” he said, pointing to an over-sized, hand-printed letter signed by all of his classmates.
“Bill Thayer (Arlington Park racing executive) just loves Michael and he’s devastated over what happened. Guys like Wesley and Chris are being really hard on themselves, thinking they somehow are to blame for this, but it’s not their fault.”
Sandy and Beth said it was tough to watch Matthew when he rode at Arlington Park for the first time after Michael’s injury, and they watch his races from a completely different perspective today. “We always said ‘just get around the track safely,’” Sandy said, “but now…” He didn’t need to finish the sentence.
We had the opportunity to visit with Michael and his parents, along with the PDJF’s Nancy LaSala on Friday morning, while in Chicago on the second stop of the BREEDERS’ CUP OR BUST fundraising drive from Kentucky to California. The drive, in partnership with Breeders’ Cup Charities, is benefiting the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research. We’ve had some fun raising money for the charities, but today’s visit really hit home what these seriously injured riders go through.
Everyone in racing is hoping that Michael Straight will not have to become the next rider to benefit from the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund—certainly not his parents. But the PDJF has to be there to help these riders when there are no miracles and prayers are not enough.
Michael and Matthew Straight will turn 24 years old in a couple of weeks, on Nov. 12. The best birthday present for them would be an improvement in Michael’s condition, but the odds are against that happening so soon. A donation to Breeders’ Cup Charities to benefit the PDJF and V Foundation would be an appropriate way to recognize their birthdays. Please click here to make a donation.
If you can’t give, please consider sending a birthday card to lift Michael’s spirits. (It can be sent to Michael Straight, c/o Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 345 E. Superior, Chicago, IL 60611.) It might also lift the spirits of Sandy and Beth Straight. They have shown incredible strength over the last 10 weeks, but the stress they are experiencing and the pain they are feeling is taking a toll on them, too.
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Liberation Farm celebrates the many horsemen and horsewomen who strive each day to make things better for horses and those who work with them. To learn more about Liberation Farm, click here.
By Ray Paulick
When a jockey goes down in a race, there’s no one that shows more concern than a fellow rider, even if it’s been 45 years since that fellow rider has been on a horse’s back. I witnessed that concern Thursday afternoon at Hawthorne, when a horse named Loose Lips got cut off a few strides out of the gate in the seventh race and jockey Angel Stanley tumbled to the ground.
Brad Cummings and I were sitting with former jockey Dennis Keehan in the box area when the incident occurred, and the look in his eyes when Stanley went down was a picture I’ll remember for some time. Fortunately, Stanley jumped up and apparently was uninjured.
Keehan wasn’t so lucky the last time he fell onto a racetrack. It was 45 years ago at Sportsman’s Park when a horse he was riding was shut off, stumbled and went down in a four-horse spill. A trailing horse tripped and fell right on top of his chest, paralyzing him from the waist down. Keehan was 21 years old, and needless to say, he’s been through a lot since then. Claire Novak tells his story in a poignant ESPN.com article here.
Today, Keehan is a witty and engaging man who now and then enjoys coming out to the track, handicapping the races and betting a couple of bucks. Life isn’t easy when you’re in a wheelchair and on your own, but the monthly check he gets from the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund helps Keehan get out from under the medical bills that can pile up when you have special needs.
To see the Dennis Keehan interview, click below.
We were at Hawthorne on day two of the BREEDERS’ CUP OR BUST fundraising drive from Kentucky to California, and as I said in our sendoff from Keeneland yesterday, where we were blanked at the betting windows, Chicago is our kind of town.
We’d like to thank TVG, Bill Casner and WinStar Farm, Barry Irwin of Team Valor International, and Kate Lantaff of Tahoma Stud for sponsoring this segment of the trip. Their sponsorship dollars go directly through Breeders’ Cup Charities and will be divided equally between the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Lane’s End, Darley, Airdrie Stud and Overbrook Farm sponsored the first segment.
Hawthorne’s management and staff provided the same great hospitality we were treated to at Keeneland, but the horses here were much more accommodating. The wagering bankroll provided to us by Breeders’ Cup more than doubled (thanks largely to a 7-1 winner, Watch Pat, in the fifth race) making up for a tough start in Kentucky. Our guest handicapper from the TVG online community, Steve Hunsberger, also had a good day at Hawthorne, hitting an exacta in the sixth along with a sizable place bet on the second-place finisher, Napoleon’s Retreat, whose Waterloo came in the final sixteenth of a mile. Had Napoleon’s Retreat held on for the win, Steve would have cashed an even bigger ticket. on behalf of the charities. Thanks to TVG for their partnership on this fundraising effort and to all the members of the TVG community who participated.
Hawthorne got into the spirit, too, bankrolling Katie Mikolay, the track’s personable simulcast hostess and handicapper, and assistant general manager Jim Miller. If they went bust (like I did at Keeneland on Wednesday), Hawthorne was going to make a generous donation to Breeders’ Cup charities. A special thanks to Hawthorne president and general manager Tim Carey.
All proceeds from the winnings go to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Whether you are an owner, breeder, trainer, racing fan/horseplayer or someone like me who has had the good fortune to make his living in this industry, I hope you’ll consider making a donation to support these two worthy organizations.
Please click here to go to the Breeders’ Cup Charities page and make a donation.
Hawthorne was where I became a racing fan and horseplayer when I lived in Chicago in the mid-1970s, and it’s always fun coming back to the track where I “cut my teeth” in racing. Like any racetrack in Illinois that has to compete with casinos in the Chicago suburbs or in neighboring Indiana, there have been some struggles, but the Carey family that’s owned Hawthorne for 100 years is committed to racing, and it shows.
While here, we had the opportunity to meet several members of the jockey colony, including Jerry LaSala, a board member and treasurer of the Jockeys’ Guild, and the unique father and son riding duo of Randy and Brandon Meier. Randy Meier’s broken 50 bones during his career, and he wasn’t crazy about his son following in his footsteps, but racing has a way of getting into your blood. In talking with him about 21-year-old Brandon, though, you can sense the pride he has in him and can tell how much fun he’s having riding with and against his son.
See interviews with Jerry LaSala and the Meiers by clicking below.
We’re meeting PDJF executive director Nancy LaSala Friday and hope to have a chance to talk with Michael Straight, who suffered a devastating injury this summer as a young apprentice rider at Arlington Park and is undergoing rehabilitation. Then it will be back on the road for the drive to Remington Park in Oklahoma City for some fun and fundraising activities on Sunday.
We’ve got a long road ahead of us between here and California for the Nov. 6-7 Breeders’ Cup, but it’s nothing compared to what these disabled riders face when their passion and their world comes crashing down on them.
If I haven’t asked you already, and I know I have, I’ll ask you again: please give.
Do you know an individual or organization who you think we should consider for an upcoming “Good News Friday” feature? Then please e-mail info@paulickreport.com with the name of the individual or organization and a brief description of why you think they should be featured. Additionally, we’d like to thank Rob Whiteley and Liberation Farm for encouraging us to bring to light some of the industry’s positive stories and for sponsoring this exclusive Paulick Report feature.
By Ray Paulick Good news doesn’t always make us feel good. To me, that’s the story of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, a 501(c)3 charity that has the thankless task of providing financial assistance to help former jockeys cope with the realities of lives too often spent in wheelchairs. It’s an organization doing exceptionally important work, and like many other worthy causes it struggles to get the funding it needs.
The Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund makes a huge difference in the lives of these former riders, who currently number 60 (nine are women). Nancy LaSala, the Fund’s board chairman, is like so many in the racing community who is hoping and praying that Rene Douglas, severely injured in an Arlington Park accident on May 23, does not become disabled jockey No. 61.
“There is a need for assistance for these individuals,” said LaSala, a native of Chicago who for 26 years has been married to jockey Jerry LaSala, currently an officer with the Jockeys’ Guild. “Many of the riders are hurt at a young age. They don’t have time to build retirement savings. Some have young children. They have no other means of income. Many have said to me, ‘If I didn’t have this assistance, I wouldn’t have a roof over my head.’ The $1,000 a month we provide helps them pay for basic necessities. If they’re ever thrown a curveball, believe me, it’s devastating for them.”
During the final stages of Gertmenian’s tenure, Nancy LaSala and a number of Guild officers worried that the disabled riders would be left on their own, without any assistance. “I very much care about the welfare of the jockeys,” LaSala said. “In 2005, before the Guild severed its relationship with Gertmenian, I asked, ‘If this organization fails, what will happen to these disabled riders? We got involved in helping with their needs, and I think that was very valuable. We then started having meetings with other groups in the industry in January of 2006.”
Racing executives like Steve Sexton of Churchill Downs Inc. and Don Amos, then with Magna Entertainment, helped lead the charge to start a new Fund, and in May 2006 the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund was created as part of NTRA Charities. One month later, with seed money from Churchill Downs Inc., Magna and other tracks, it was able to begin offering financial assistance to permanently disabled riders in need.
LaSala said many racetracks have really stepped up to help raise money for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. Horsemen’s organizations have not been as supportive, though individuals in the ownership ranks, including Richard Santulli, chairman of NetJets, Bill Casner of WinStar Farm, Barbaro owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, and Michael Bello, a California-based owner, have made significant contributions. In 2008, thanks to Santulli and Casner, the Fund raised $500,000 during the Triple Crown, which amounts to more than half of the Fund’s $800,000 annual operating budget. Santulli and Casner again kicked in major contributions to the Fund at this year’s Kentucky Derby.
“Jockeys have the most hazardous occupation of any professional athlete, and I feel are greatly unappreciated,” said Casner, the former chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and a self-described “ex-gallop boy that got on about 25,000 of those beasts over 16 years as a young racetracker,” one who “had my share of hitting the ground and having several flip over on me …but for the grace of God."
“There are around 1,500 licensed professional jockeys,” Casner added, “with most of them struggling with weight and making a living. They put their lives and bodies at risk every time they get on one of our horses and most will deal with a plethora of injuries over a career. If they are lucky they will walk away and not have to deal with paralysis. Exercise riders and backstretch help should also be included in this group. While they do not experience the injury opportunities that race riders do, they are still subject to the same events. It is only right that we as an industry work with the jockeys to help them help themselves as well as other backside employees. I comment Richard Santulli, as well as the riders, for taking the leadership on this important charitable endeavor over the last two Triple Crowns.”
Riders have been directly involved in some of the creative fundraising that’s been done for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. At Keeneland this spring, “Riders Up!” a karaoke competition involving many current and past jockeys, was the highlight of a very popular dinner that raised $50,000 for the Fund.
Earlier, in Hot Springs, Ark., restaurateur Mike Loy provided free dinners at his popular KJ’s Grill and racing fans paid $100 each to dine and meet some of their favorite jockeys, raising another $17,000 for the Fund. A similar event, “Dining With the Dynasties,” will be held at Arlington Park Aug. 7, the day before the Arlington Million, thanks to Arlington boss Richard Duchossois and track president Roy Arnold, who is now a member of the Fund’s board of directors. Retired Hall of Fame jockeys like Pat Day and Gary Stevens, along with other current and former riders, including some of those who benefit from the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, are expected to participate at the Arlington event.
Speaking of Pat Day, there is good news about him and Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey, two former Jockeys’ Guild presidents who resigned from the organization when the former manager, John Giovanni, was forced out and Gertmenian was brought in. Now that the Guild has regained its credibility and is on the road to financial recovery under the leadership of Terry Meyocks and a newly configured board, Bailey and Day have rejoined the organization in a show of support. Meyocks said a number of other current riders who had quit the Guild during the Gertmenian era have also come back into the fold.
Earlier this year, the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund became a standalone 501(c)3 charity, and it is no longer part of NTRA Charities. It continues to struggle for its funding. “We need the support of the entire industry and all of its partners,” LaSala said.
Please contact the Fund if you would like to help. Its web site will have an online donation link in the near future. In the meantime, you can send donations to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, P.O. Box 803, Elmhurst, IL 60126. The telephone number is: (630) 595-7660 and fax is (630) 595-7655.
Liberation Farm celebrates the many horsemen and horsewomen who strive each day to make things better for horses and those who work with them. To learn more about Liberation Farm, click here.
