A RACE meeting was abandoned with immediate effect after ‘disrespected’ jockeys went on strike as part of a long-running row.
Eight races were scrapped at Aqueduct track in New York on Sunday following a protest from riders – who called it quits after the first.
The jockeys had no issue with the track or conditions but with the duties of the clerk and assistant clerk of scales.
New York Racing Association have responsibility for managing the duties of track officials.
According to reports of the incident, jockeys expressed concern over the additional jobs assistant Brian Pochman was given on the day.
Kendrick Carmouche, a top jockey on the circuit, said he and his peers ‘felt disrespected by the track’s management’.
Pochman was sent home on the day although it remains, for now, unclear why exactly.
His job on the day should have been to help weigh the jockeys in and out before and after races.
Carmouche claimed NYRA were asking Pochman to do extra work and that he was ‘uncomfortable’ with the added responsibilities.
Andrew Offerman, NYRA senior vice-president of racing and operations, said: “NYRA is responsible for oversight of the clerk of scales, assistant clerk of scales, and all racing officials in accordance with New York State Gaming Commission rules.
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“The procedures employed by those officials are designed to protect the integrity of racing and are NYRA’s responsibility to maintain and enforce.”
Carmouche said a number of factors that had been building up, such as banning jockey’s families from the weighing room, and contributed to the bust-up.
Carmouche said: “They are making him do more than he’s supposed to and he said he wasn’t comfortable with doing that, so they sent him home and now they’re trying to put other people in his spot to make the races go.
“That’s just going to make things worse because they don’t know what they’re doing.
“All of the things I just told you are the reasons why we are cancelling.
“They don’t respect us, they don’t care about our feelings, they don’t care about making us feel like we’re the head of the sport because we are the jocks, we do make the show go on.
“It’s the jockeys and the valets standing up for what’s right.”
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