gerard melancon | Horse Racing Free Tips

Melancon Arrested On Evangeline ‘Buzzer’ Charge

Jockey Gerard Melancon, a mainstay atop the riding standings in his home state of Louisiana, was arrested Aug. 26 on a charge related to the alleged possession of an electrical shocking device after Evangeline Downs stewards reported an “incident” to state police.

Ray Paulick of Paulick Report had the scoop in a Tuesday story. He cited confirmations of the “unnatural stimulation of horses” arrest from the St. Landry Parish sheriff's office, the clerk of the parish court, and the Louisiana State Police. But details were scant because of an “ongoing investigation.”

TDN attempted to contact the St. Landry Parish district attorney to find out about a court date, and whether Melancon had retained a lawyer, but had no luck reaching anyone who would comment prior to deadline for this story. Melancon himself could also not be reached for his side of the story.

The St. Landry Parish clerk of court told the Paulick Report that the 55-year-old Melancon was released on a $20,000 bail bond.
Charles Gardiner, the executive director of the Louisiana State Racing Commission, told the Paulick Report that the state police and Evangeline stewards will conduct separate investigations. But, he added, a complicating factor in the stewards' investigation is that the Evangeline race meet has ended and the stewards are not considered to be on the job 48 hours after a meet ends.

Melancon went 0-for-4 riding at Evangeline last Wednesday, Aug. 24. He was named there on mounts Thursday and Friday but did not ride either card. The day following his arrest, Melancon rode the closing-day Evangeline card Aug. 27, then rode at Louisiana Downs Aug. 28. He is named to ride at Louisiana Downs Sept. 4, 5, and 6.

Melancon has won 5,079 races from 32,444 mounts dating to 1984. In June of 2021, when profiled in the Rayne-Acadian Tribune for winning his 5,000th race, Melancon acknowledged issues in his 20s with alcohol and cocaine that nearly derailed his life and riding career. But he said he quit abusing substances in 1989 and has claimed sobriety as a recovering addict ever since.
Prior to that, Melancon's name had surfaced two alleged Louisiana race-fixing scandals.

In 1986, Melancon was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the investigation of an allegedly fixed Fair Grounds race in which he purportedly received $500 from another jockey to hold back his horse. Published news accounts at the time stated that Melancon had testified before a grand jury against the fellow riders who ended up being indicted.

In April of 1987, after jockey Bryan Jenkins was allegedly caught with an illegal shocking device at Evangeline, he testified at a racing commission hearing that Melancon had handed the device to him after obtaining it from a pony person, according to coverage of the incident in the Shreveport Times.

Even though he was never indicted in either case, citing the race-fixing allegations, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission refused to license him to ride in the 1992 GI Kentucky Derby.

In 2021, Melancon was named as a finalist for the Mike Venezia Memorial Award, which the New York Racing Association awards to a jockey who displays extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship.

This summer, on June 29, Melancon joined a federal lawsuit in which two states, the Jockeys' Guild, and various Louisiana-based “covered persons” under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) are trying to get HISA derailed on alleged non-constitutionality grounds and for alleged non-compliance with federal rulemaking procedures.

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Fair Grounds: Mitchell Murrill Records 1,000th Career Win

Just a little more than eight years into a career that began at Delta Downs on Halloween in 2013, jockey Mitchell Murrill won his 1,000th career race on Sunday at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in New Orleans, La., guiding Selective Racing's Yin Yang (2-1 second choice) to victory for trainer Brad Cox in the day's sixth race, an “off the turf” optional claiming/first-level allowance sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

“I've got to thank Brad (trainer Cox),” Murrill said. “This is the first horse I've ridden for him in my career, so it's kind of nice to get into the winner's circle for him. He told me before the race that the horse (Yin Yang) was going to be keen and to try to get her to relax and keep her running forward. She did it today.”

Earlier on the card Murrill won the fourth race on Cypriano for trainer Chris Hartman, who just two days earlier reached a milestone of his own at Fair Grounds, winning his 1,500 career race. The duo has contributed greatly to each other's success, teaming up for 82 wins since first joining forces four years ago. Following a five for ten winning streak, Murrill had been in an 0 for 23 slump prior to his fourth race score.

“It's pretty awesome,” Murrill said of reaching the milestone. “All week it's been pretty tough to get into the winner's circle, but we got it done and I can't be more grateful for everyone who has contributed.”

The 27-year-old native of Mobile, Ala., scored his first career win aboard Golden Barbara on May 28, 2014. Perennially in the top five in the jockey standings at both Fair Grounds and Arlington Park, he had a breakthrough meet in November at Churchill Downs, finishing fifth with 15 wins. He earned a career-best $5,619,207 in purses in 2021 and counts the 2018 Fair Grounds Oaks (G3) aboard Chocolate Martini as his biggest win to date.

“Gerard Melancon helped me out from the very beginning when I started riding at Evangeline,” Murrill said. “It's hard grinding, working. My agent Tim (Hanisch) is out here every day working hard, trying to make connections with everybody and trying to keep everybody happy. We are just trying to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.”

Murrill's parents and girlfriend had been in attendance earlier in the week, awaiting the milestone win that didn't come until Sunday.

“I told them if I didn't win, they had to go home,” Murrill joked. “I wish they could have been here to share this with me.”

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Lighting Safety Concerns Again Delay Return Of Night Racing At Delta Downs

Renewed concerns over the safety of a new LED lighting system installed at Delta Downs prevented the Louisiana State Racing Commission from approving a return to night racing at the Vinton, La. racetrack, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News.

The new system was necessitated by a hurricane wiping out the old lights in August of 2020. Delta first raced under the new lights at night on Oct. 15, when a horse fell at the top of the stretch in the third race and the rest of the card, as well as the Oct. 16 program, were cancelled. Delta has only raced afternoon cards since then, which management maintains is not ideal for handle.

Since then, new lights have been added to the system, and the original ones have been re-aimed to improve coverage. Training in the mornings has occurred under the updated system since Dec. 2, but jockeys like Ty Kennedy, Gerard Melancon, and Tim Thornton expressed that they still don't feel the lights are safe.

Delta's vice president and general manager Steve Kuypers countered by referencing a report written by lighting specialist John Stewart, brought in on Dec. 1, which states that “the only track in the nation with a better lighting system was Churchill Downs.”

“We can't agree on okaying this if the lighting system's not safe for these riders,” Commissioner Eddie Delahoussaye, a retired Hall-of-Fame jockey, told the other commissioners. “Somebody goes and gets killed–I don't want that on my head.”

The LSRC wound up voting unanimously to extend Delta's afternoon racing schedule for an additional 30 days, unless the two parties can agree on the safety of the lights and desire an expedited re-vote prior to that timeframe.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

The post Lighting Safety Concerns Again Delay Return Of Night Racing At Delta Downs appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Dispute Over Safety of New Lights Keeps Delta Dark at Night

Strenuous safety-related objections from Delta Downs jockeys about the allegedly inconsistent lighting from a new system that has been installed and tweaked over the course of several months kept the Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) from approving a return to night racing when regulators met for an emergency session to address that one item Monday morning.

Mindy Coleman, an attorney representing The Jockeys' Guild, told commissioners on the Dec. 13 Zoom call that while the Delta-based riders recognize and appreciate the efforts track management has made to try to improve the situation, “there are still some grave concerns” with the recently installed light-emitting diode (LED) system, which was necessitated by the old lights getting wrecked by a hurricane in August 2020.

“It's not the amount of lighting per se. It's more inconsistencies with the distribution of the lighting, and the various shadows and the hot spots on the racetrack,” Coleman said.

Steve Kuypers, Delta's vice president and general manager, disagreed. He said that since the jockeys first aired their concerns before the LSRC Oct. 26, a lighting contractor has added lower support brackets to 36 poles and attached 64 new light fixtures. These additional lights, in conjunction with the ones installed earlier in the process, have since been re-aimed to improve coverage.

And, Kuypers said, Delta also hired a “highly recognized specialist,” John Stewart, the president of a Kentucky-based entertainment venue design firm, who further offered lighting advice that was implemented Dec. 1.

Kuypers said management, horsemen, and jockeys then walked the track with Stewart while the lights were turned on Dec. 2. He said Delta executives came away from that meeting with the belief that all parties felt the problems had been acceptably rectified.

Kuypers referenced a report Stewart had written that proclaimed the new Delta lights to be “tremendously better than the pre-hurricane lighting.” Kuypers said Stewart also noted in his report that the only track in the nation with a better lighting system was Churchill Downs.

Kuypers also added that “Delta Downs has turned on all the lights and the jockeys [have been training in the pre-dawn hours] without complaint or incident.”

But jockey Ty Kennedy said morning training under the lights isn't the same as night racing in a 10-horse field.

“Yes, we do train under these lights every morning. However, breezing a horse by yourself is a lot different than riding in a race with nine other horses,” Kennedy said.

The first version of Delta's new lighting system was only operational for three races on the first night program of the season Oct. 15 before a horse fell at the top of the stretch.

Fueled by complaints from some jockeys and trainers that areas on the turns were dangerously dark and shadowy, the remainder of that card and the Oct. 16 program were cancelled. Delta, a longtime night-racing fixture, has raced only afternoons since then.

“We haven't seen shadows like these at any other [night] racetrack,” Kennedy said. “These shadows are very inconsistent, and we feel that they can potentially create hazardous situations.”

Jockey Gerard Melancon told commissioners he's walked Delta's track with 20+ riders on several occasions during various stages of the project. He explained that the consensus view among jockeys is that “from the get-go, the lighting wasn't put up high enough…. The lower the lights are, the more it causes shadows.”

Coleman disputed allegations that the jockeys are citing safety concerns because they just don't want to go back to night racing, period. Delta hasn't raced nights since February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first halted racing. Then the hurricane hit six months later, wiping out the old lights.

Delta management has expressed a belief that a blend of two afternoons and two nights per week is the ideal schedule right now to maximize handle, and the hybrid plan for the current meet was supposed to be Wednesday and Thursday cards at 12:55 p.m. (Central) and Friday and Saturday programs under the lights at 5:55 p.m.

Jockey Tim Thornton also disputed that notion.

“We want to make money,” he said. “If the lights were completely fine, we'd run at two o'clock in the morning. I know that the handle is a big issue. [But] we don't feel that our safety should be in jeopardy because of the handle going down.”

Benard Chatters, the president of the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, has maintained since October that the lights are fine and that his organization wants to go back to night racing.

“I think we have a fabulous lighting system here,” Chatters said.

At a later point, Chatters stated that the Guild's position regarding safety doesn't apply to all Delta-based riders. He offered the analogy that just because some people don't feel safe driving a vehicle at night, that doesn't mean we shut down the entire interstate highway system. The way he sees it, jockeys have a personal choice whether they want to ride or not at night.

“I guarantee there are going to be people who are willing to ride, and that's the reality of this situation,” Chatters said.

Commissioner Tom Calvert wanted to know if any of the jockeys who testified would go on the record as saying the situation was so unsafe that they wouldn't ride at all under the present lights. “Or,” he postulated, “are we in search of optimization, I guess is my question.”

Coleman voiced an opinion that individual riders could answer that question if they wanted to. But she also stated that it could be dangerous for jockeys–either in terms of retaliation or intimidation–if they didn't address the situation by one unified vote as a riding colony.

Kennedy answered the commissioner's question anyway.

“We've had several votes in the room, and it's always been unanimously 'no,'” he said, meaning that riders as a group would not ride at night under the current lighting. Thornton seconded that opinion.

Commissioner Eddie Delahoussaye, a retired Hall-of-Fame jockey, urged fellow commissioners not to vote for allowing Delta to resume night racing until they felt safety was 100% assured.

“We can't agree on okaying this if the lighting system's not safe for these riders,” Delahoussaye said. “Somebody goes and gets killed–I don't want that on my head.”

The LSRC ended up ruling by unanimous voice vote to extend Delta's permission to race days instead of nights for another 30-day period, with the stipulation that both sides can come back to the commission for an expedited re-vote if they reach consensus on the safety of the lighting system before the next commission meeting occurs.

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