NYRA jockeys refused to ride after Sunday’s first race at Aqueduct, citing ongoing tensions with management. The walkout was triggered when Assistant Clerk of Scales Brian Pochman was sent home after declining additional administrative duties.
“I have never seen such disrespect to a jockey colony and the people who work in the jocks’ room,” said Kendrick Carmouche, who serves as the Jockey’s Guild representative during winter months when John Velazquez rides elsewhere.
NYRA Senior Vice President of Racing and Operations Andrew Offerman explained that Pochman had been asked to manually record weights as a backup to the electronic system — a requirement implemented weeks ago while Pochman was on vacation.
“NYRA has been going through the process of drafting standard operating procedures for all of its racing officials,” Offerman said. “There have been recent modifications that included the written recording of the weights in a program as a backup to the electronic scale system. There was concern on the part of the assistant clerk of scales when it came to taking on this duty.”
Offerman noted that many issues raised by riders appeared unrelated to Sunday’s incident and had been “previously discussed and settled.”
Carmouche defended Pochman’s position regarding the workload concerns.
“I rode the first race, and everything was fine,” he said. “Then when I came back all the jocks and valets said that they had just sent Brian home because he was not going to do the extra work. He thought it might hurt him in the long run because he had so much to do.”
The jockey explained that Pochman “didn’t want to do it because he said he felt like it would most likely get him in trouble later because they were making him do so much and he wasn’t focusing on what he needed to focus on.”
According to Carmouche, this incident represents one of four points of contention between jockeys and management over the past year. A particularly significant issue involves NYRA‘s decision to prohibit jockeys’ wives, girlfriends and children from entering the jockeys’ room, restricting family interactions to a small kitchen area adjacent to the main room.
“Our sport is a family sport and it is important to us to have our kids and families at the races,” Carmouche said. “It’s not like a normal job being in an office, where you are not supposed to have your kids there. Nothing went wrong in the past letting our kids come into the jocks’ room, but then they decided to stop that.”
The immediate question facing NYRA is whether racing can resume by Thursday, the next scheduled race day. Saturday’s card features six stakes races, including four graded events highlighted by the GII Cigar Mile H.
Offerman confirmed plans to meet Monday with jockeys and Guild representatives to resolve the dispute.
“That’s our full expectation, that we will be able to race on Thursday,” he said.
Terry Meyocks, president and CEO of the Jockeys’ Guild, plans to facilitate discussions between the parties.
“I am going to reach out to Kendrick and I will reach out to three or four other jocks including Johnny [Velazquez],” Meyocks said. “I wish this wouldn’t have happened when it did. I talked to Andrew Offerman and I told him that I’m not going to tell a NYRA employee what to do. But before sending the assistant clerk of scales home, I wish they would waited until [Monday] or had a conversation with us first.”
