The following statement was issued by The Jockeys' Guild on Monday, following the cancellation of races on Saturday, Aug. 14 at Charles Town Races in West Virginia:
“The decision by the jockeys at Charles Town to refuse to ride on Saturday, Aug. 14 was made with just cause and only after many discussions with management concerning timely payment for jockey's mounts. Receipt of payment in a timely fashion has been a problem on and off for several years at Charles Town and Saturday was not the first time the jockeys have considered refusing to ride over the issue.
“Representatives of the Jockey's Guild and members of the Charles Town jockey colony have had discussions with management and stewards several times in hopes of getting a permanent resolution. Concerns include, but are not limited to, changes to the day of the week the jockeys may get paid without notifying the jockeys and there have been instances when checks have been issued, jockeys were advised that there are insufficient funds in the account to cover the paychecks.
“Most jockeys live paycheck to paycheck and they felt they had no other recourse but to bring attention again to this on-going situation. The inconsistencies and issues of receiving payments consistently occurs nowhere else in the country, including at Mountaineer racetrack, which is also in West Virginia. Everyone can relate to doing a job and being paid in a timely manner. Jockeys are no exception. The jockeys at Charles Town put themselves in harm's way in each and every race and to not be paid in a timely manner is simply unacceptable.
“This is an issue that the management and stewards at Charles Town need to resolve immediately.”
Charles Town's vice president of racing operations Erich Zimny told the Paulick Report on Saturday that the issues, which resulted in the cancellation of races when jockeys refused to ride, revolved around delayed payments into the jockeys' account.
“We've tried damn hard to make racing, including all of the administrative functions involved, as normal as possible despite the situation we're all still in being far from normal.” Zimny said. “There was a temporary delay in money getting transferred for jockeys' checks into the normal account. The riders were told they could instead cash their checks at the casino cage and there would be no issue. Apparently, the delay was enough to choose not to ride and create a negative impact for everyone.”
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