NYRA Sets COVID-19 Jockey Protocols for Belmont Fall Meet; Out-Of-Town Riders Not Permitted

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) on Sunday announced COVID-19 health and safety protocols for jockeys during the 27-day Belmont Park fall meet. The Elmont, N.Y., track will open on Friday, September 18, and run through Sunday, November 1.

The Belmont Park fall meet will be highlighted by 22 graded stakes, featuring seven Grade 1 events and seven Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” qualifiers to the two-day Breeders' Cup 2020 World Championships to be held November 6-7 at Keeneland Race Course.

In order to mitigate risk and reduce the spread of COVID-19, Belmont Park will be closed to out-of-town jockeys until further notice.  However, members of the regular NYRA jockey colony who travel to ride at any other racetrack during the Belmont Park fall meet will be required to provide two negative COVID-19 tests taken within a 5-day window in order to return to ride at Belmont. Jockeys traveling out of state who have completed the required testing will then be physically isolated in the jockey quarters for three additional calendar days.

For example, if a NYRA jockey travels out of New York to compete on a Saturday then that jockey should be tested upon return to New York on Sunday and tested again on Thursday. Should both tests be returned negative then the jockey will be allowed to ride races at Belmont beginning Friday and will be provided an isolated area on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

NYRA jockeys who have traveled outside of New York state to compete at other racetracks beginning the week of August 31 will also be required to provide two negative COVID-19 tests taken within the 5-day window preceding that jockey's first mount at Belmont Park.

Jockeys who have remained in New York and not competed at other tracks following the conclusion of the summer meet on September 7 will be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test taken within the 7-day window preceding that jockey's first mount at Belmont Park.

All testing must be performed in New York state.

Condition Book 1 for the fall meet currently lists 17 active jockeys and two apprentice riders who will be designated members of the NYRA jockey colony. Jockeys and agents interested in being included in the NYRA jockey colony may contact NYRA Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Martin Panza for consideration by September 18.

In addition to race day safety protocols which include standard health screening and temperature checks, the jockey quarters at Belmont Park 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 outside personnel, including credentialed media, and are cleaned and disinfected throughout the day.

Jockeys 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 may 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 valets must provide a negative COVID-19 test taken anytime after September 13 in order to access the jockey quarters on opening day, September 18. Valets working in in the jockey quarters are not permitted in the barn area.

The 2020 Belmont Park fall meet will begin on Friday, September 18 and run through Sunday, November 1. Following opening weekend at Belmont, live racing will be conducted Thursday through Sunday with the exception of Columbus Day weekend, when live racing will be offered on Monday, October 12 and will resume on Friday, October 16.

America's Day at the Races will present daily television coverage of the Belmont Park fall meet with coverage to air on FOX Sports and MSG Networks.

 

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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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