I have really thought hard about sending this letter, but the time has come to speak up.
I have been a trainer since 1984. I have won over 2,300 races and been on just about every safety panel ever presented to the public. I have over 40 videos on Youtube @GaryContessa because I love to talk about this business and try to teach those interested about this business. I would like to give my thoughts on the Monmouth Park whip rule.
I am all about the safety of racehorses, but even more concerned with the safety of our jockeys. I have told every jockey who ever rode for me and every exercise rider who has ever worked for me, “If you feel something, scratch; if you feel something, bring them home.” I — as well as every one of my peers — do not ever want to be responsible for getting a rider hurt. When riders get hurt by a 1,200-pound horse running 40 miles per hour, it is only luck if they only get bumps and bruises. Usually, their injuries are far worse.
What is happening at Monmouth is typical of what is wrong with our industry. It is not just New Jersey — it is almost everywhere. We have non-horse people in authority dictating safety protocol and rules and regulations for our industry without ever having worked in the front lines and with virtually no experience whatsoever with horses. I may be going on a limb here, but I believe it is a very good guess that whomever set up and pushed the new whip rule in New Jersey never rode a race in his or her life. It is also probable that their lifetime experience with horses is limited to a carousel or a pony ride.
What really bothers me, and again is typical of this industry, is they had no desire to hear what the jockeys had to say on the matter. Now think about this: a 1,200-pound horse ridden by a 110-pound jockey is going to be judged by someone on the roof of the grandstand, or in an office somewhere in New Jersey as to whether or not the rider's whip use was correct.
Let me tell you from experience: because of horses, I have a knee replacement on one side, six screws in the other knee, and seven screws in an ankle, and that is just from working on horses on the ground. Horses can really damage a human if they choose to, be it a trainer, groom, or jockey. Sometimes in the blink of an eye a horse sends you a signal and you say, “Oh boy,” and prepare for the worst. For a jockey riding one at 40 miles per hour, I can tell you the signal that they get from that horse happens in less than the blink of an eye.
Telling a jockey he cannot use the whip is the worst rule I have seen in recent memory. Limiting the use of the whip to three or four hits in a certain place is so much more intelligent than the rule at Monmouth.
We have made the whips now so they are heard but not even felt by the horse. Today's whips are not inhumane and if you need proof, there is a nice video with Ramon Dominguez out there showing that humans feel nothing when hit by the whip. Jockeys need to get a horse's attention before they do something, not after it is too late. When they see those ears going back, when the horse is looking too hard at a competitor or when they grab the bit in an effort to go outside or lug in. We have seen this all too often. In a moment a horse ducks in or out and causes a catastrophic accident while getting tangled up with another horse. The horse behind goes down and every horse behind him goes over him.
Jockeys know what they are doing. They, like myself, get a signal right before a horse is going to do something. Horsemen feel it. That subtle signal that comes right before they are about to do something. Sometimes we pick up that signal and sometimes we end up in a hospital, but to take away a jockey's instinct and threaten punishment for simply doing what they have always done to keep horse and rider safe is a bad precedent, and if I were a jockey I would not want to ride at Monmouth Park. It is just not worth dying for.
–Gary Contessa, multiple graded stakes-winning trainer and top trainer in New York by wins, 2006-08
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