Luis Saez | Horse Racing Free Tips

COVID-19: Luis Saez Could Be Cleared To Return To Saddle Friday At Saratoga

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) on Sunday announced that pending the completion of a 14-day quarantine period, a negative COVID-19 test and clearance from a physician noting that NYRA-based jockey Luis Saez can no longer transmit the virus, that Saez would be permitted to ride at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Friday, July 24.

Saez tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, July 10 while riding at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky. He has remained asymptomatic throughout the period of quarantine, which will total 14-days on July 24.

Current Centers for Disease Control (C.D.C.) guidance recommends a 10-day quarantine period for individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19, but remained asymptomatic prior to and throughout the duration of quarantine. Saez made the determination to extend his quarantine to 14-days in the interest of protecting his fellow riders.

Following the completion of 10-days in isolation, according to the same C.D.C. guidance, a COVID-19 diagnostic test should be administered to rule out the potential for ongoing infection and transmission. As such, Saez will only be tested once he has completed 10-days in quarantine.

Additional information regarding the discontinuation of quarantine/isolation for individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 can be found at CDC.gov.

The decision to allow Saez to potentially return to action on Friday, so long as all steps are completed to the satisfaction of NYRA and his attending physician, was made in consultation with the Jockeys' Guild and the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC).

Saratoga Race Course is closed to out-of-town jockeys. In addition, any member of the regular NYRA jockey colony who travels to ride at any other racetrack will not be permitted to return to Saratoga Race Course.

Out-of-town jockeys that are not currently riding at another racetrack may be considered for inclusion in the regular NYRA jockey colony provided the jockey does not ride at another racetrack beginning on Thursday, July 16.

Any jockey that rides at a racetrack outside of Saratoga beginning Thursday, July 16 will be considered an out-of-town jockey and will not be permitted at Saratoga Race Course.

All personnel working at Saratoga Race Course in any capacity are required by NYRA to produce a negative COVID-19 test in order to access the property. This policy is inclusive of jockeys, valets, NYRA employees, trainers and their staff, outside vendors and credentialed media.

In addition to race day safety protocols including standard health screening and temperature check, the jockey quarters at Saratoga Race Course have been substantially altered to provide maximum social distancing and reduce density. All areas accessed by jockeys during the regular course of a race day are closed to all outside personnel, including credentialed media, and are cleaned and disinfected throughout the day.

Jockeys and valets are not permitted access to the barn area. In order to work a horse in the morning, the jockey must meet the horse in the paddock and can then proceed to the main track.

Jockey agents must produce a negative COVID-19 test in order to gain access to the barn area. Races will continue to be drawn via Zoom.

All common areas as well as the jockey's dining area have been closed and will remain closed through the end of the meet.

NYRA's COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan Committee, comprised of key NYRA staff members as well as representatives from the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA), the Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.), Belmont Child Care Association (BCCA) and the New York Race Track Chaplaincy of America (NYRTCA), will continue to implement the most current health and safety protocols as described by the C.D.C. and the New York State Department of Health.

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Saez Expected to Return Friday

Luis Saez will be cleared to ride at Saratoga Friday pending the completion of a 14-day quarantine period, a negative COVID-19 test and clearance from a physician noting that he can no longer transmit the virus, the New York Racing Association announced Sunday.

Saez tested positive for COVID-19 July 10 while riding at Keeneland Race Course. He has remained asymptomatic throughout the period of quarantine, which will total 14-days July 24.

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Geroux Latest Jockey to Test Positive for COVID-19

Jockey Florent Geroux has joined a growing list of prominent jockeys who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Geroux was scheduled to ride Wednesday at Canterbury Park and had to take a test before he would be allowed to ride there. He took the test Monday and came up positive.

“I don’t really have any symptoms,” Georux said. “I was a little bit tired Monday, but I had a long week last week. I didn’t have any shortness of breath or anything like that.”

In less than a week, jockeys Luis Saez, Martin Garcia, Victor Espinoza, Flavien Prat, Eduard Rojas Fernandez and now Geroux have tested positive.

Other than Geroux, the jockeys all rode at Los Alamitos and Saez, Garcia, Espinoza and Prat all rode at the Southern California track July 4.

Geroux does not know where and when he got the virus, but speculated that it might have happened Thursday at Keeneland when he dressed in the same room as Saez. Saez took a test Thursday, and when the results came back positive, the next day he was removed from all his mounts after the second race.

Geroux said he has returned home and has begun his quarantine period.

“I’m looking at the bright side of this,” he said. “It could be a lot worse. There are so many people in hospitals with this that are hooked up to respiratory machines.”

Geroux normally rides at Saratoga, but has decided to make Ellis Park his main base of operation for the remainder of the summer.

Saez and Geroux are two examples of riders who have crisscrossed the country of late only to wind up with the coronavirius, raising fears that traveling jockeys may be spreading the virus from track to track. Shortly before his positive test, Saez rode at Belmont, Los Alamitos, Indiana Grand and Keeneland. Prat rode at Del Mar Friday and at Keeneland Saturday. Geroux rode at Keeneland Friday, at Belmont Saturday and back at Keeneland on Sunday and was scheduled to fly out to Canterbury before returning to Ellis Friday.

Some tracks have put rules in place that only regular local jockeys can compete and there is a growing sentiment for more tracks to do the same. Geroux said the main problem with doing that would mean that it could prohibit out-of-town riders from coming in during the week of the GI Kentucky Derby.

“People are saying what about Saratoga, that Kentucky jocks or California jocks should not be allowed to go to Saratoga,” he said. “Maybe not, but what do you for Derby week? Should only the regular jockeys in Kentucky be allowed to ride? We welcomed everybody at Churchill [during the spring meet] and all the jockeys from New York came there to ride. At Keeneland last weekend, all the jockeys from New York came to ride their big horses at Keeneland and no one put a stop on that. So why shouldn’t Kentucky and California jockeys be able to ride in Saratoga? If they can’t, only the Kentucky colony should be allowed to ride Derby week.”

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Time to Change Jockey COVID Protocols?

Have saddle, will travel–a well-worn aphorism. But is it a wise one to emulate in this time of the coronavirus?

Within the past week, Flavien Prat, Victor Espinoza, Eduard Rojas Fernandez, Luis Saez and Martin Garcia have all tested positive for the virus–a chain of events that can be traced back to Los Alamitos over the July 4 weekend, said Derek Lawson, Prat’s agent. “There’s no question that that’s where it happened,” he said, of Prat’s infection occurring at the Southern California facility.

But against a broader surge in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations in several parts of the country, cautionary voices industry-wide appear to be growing in volume, raising questions about the safety standards racetracks nationwide have instituted to protect the riding community.

A central part of the problem, said Terry Meyocks, Jockeys’ Guild president and CEO, is a familiar industry refrain: a fractured set of standards across the country.

“There needs to be more consistency throughout the United States,” said Meyocks. “It’s a more fluid situation due to the recent positives.”

A perfect example of that can be found in Southern California. When live racing resumed at Santa Anita, it did so under arguably the strictest protocols of any jockey colony in the U.S.

All riders were tested prior to action, before being quarantined in trailers on site for the duration of the weekend. There were also strict procedures in place to separate the riders and the retinue of front-stretch staff from the backstretch community, including restrictions surrounding saddling horses and attending grooms. Jockeys and their agents were also banned from entering the backstretch during morning training.

“What we did was pretty aggressive,” said Aidan Butler, acting executive director of California racing for The Stronach Group. “It worked pretty well.”

When asked how the rash of positive cases within the Santa Anita backside community factored in, Butler replied that the racetrack is both a training and racing center, and so, it’s “common sense” to impose restrictions to separate the backstretch from the front side workers. “If you want to race, you’ve got to protect the jockeys,” he said.

Del Mar has so far done things differently. Prior to this weekend, Del Mar didn’t require that jockeys get tested before riding. That has now changed–before racing resumes this Friday, Del Mar will test all jockeys and jockeys’ room personnel.

At the start of the month, Del Mar management touted to the San Diego Union-Tribune a $250,000 investment in COVID-19 safeguards, along with a nine-page opening plan crafted with input from medical experts at nearby Scripps Hospital.

Nevertheless, when it comes to separating the front stretch community from the backstretch, Del Mar appeared to have instituted a looser set of procedures than at Santa Anita, including allowing jockeys and their agents into the Del Mar backstretch in the morning.

The TDN made multiple calls, emails and texts Monday morning to Del Mar management for comment. The only reply we got was from track spokesperson Mac McBride, who explained in an email that track management were busy Monday revising safety plans, but he added that jockeys have now been barred from the backstretch. “Possible we may not allow riders to ship in or out of town,” he wrote.

Some, like Lawson, refuse to point fingers at the tracks. “There’s no blame on anybody,” he said. “There’s no place that can put somebody in a bubble for time immemorial.”

Still, Meyocks said that Santa Anita’s strict protocols, including those to separate the front-side and backstretch communities, provide a gold standard that other tracks should try to emulate, where possible.

“I’m not saying that every track can do that,” Meyocks added, pointing to the associated costs and logistics. “But you’ve got to hand it to Santa Anita.”

At a minimum, said Meyocks, tracks should insist on the following: better social distancing between race-day workers, routine testing, and more rigorous sanitization of the jocks’ room and other congregation points.

“Most of the jocks’ rooms are small with 20 jocks on top of each other,” he said. “Find somewhere you can spread them apart and limit exposure.”

There’s also the issue of jockeys flying from track-to-track across the country, with trainer Graham Motion telling the TDN Saturday that for the “well-being” of the riders, less travel might be better. “We’re putting a lot of pressure on everyone, including the jockeys,” he said.

Motion reiterated those same concerns Monday, adding that some tracks and jurisdictions were doing better than others when it comes to protecting the backstretch community as a whole, not just the jockeys.

“The tracks should be looking after us if they want to keep the game going,” said Motion.

One of the tracks that Motion mentioned favorably was Keeneland, which operated four separate jocks’ rooms to keep current riders together, to maximize social distancing, and to limit the contact with jockeys flying in from other parts of the country.

This weekend, California-based jockey Mike Smith is scheduled to fly out to New Jersey to partner the Bob Baffert-trained Authenticity in the latest running of the GI Haskell Invitational S.

According to Dennis Drazin, CEO of Monmouth Park, riders shipping in will be tested and separated from the existing jockey colony at Monmouth, with all current protocols for COVID-19 still in place and applicable to “all jockeys.”

“We have considered all options and submitted detailed protocols for approval by our regulators, who in turn consult with the [Department of Health] and administration,” wrote Drazin, in a text, adding that Monmouth medical director, Dr. Angelo Chinnici, oversees medical protocols at the track. “We try to stress to the jockeys the importance of masks and social distancing.”

Martin Panza, senior vice president of racing operations for the New York Racing Association (NYRA), wrote in a text that he wasn’t able to discuss protocols for the upcoming Saratoga meet–which starts this Thursday–as they’re “very fluid” at the moment.

“Wish all tracks had been testing,” Panza added.

Motion, however, has a different wish.

“If we had a national body supervising the protocols, we’d be in much better shape, whereas everybody’s going about things in their own way, and I think that’s putting everybody in an awkward spot,” said Motion. “This just goes to show another chink in our armor.”

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