Until jockey Gary Birzer went down in a crippling spill at a West Virginia racetrack in July, he thought he had very good accident insurance. Eclipse Award-winning rider Jose Santos thought he had good coverage too. So did a lot of jockeys around the country.
But the Birzers -- Gary, 29, and his wife, Amy -- were told by the Jockeys' Guild that there was no catastrophic insurance, that the old policy hadn't been renewed.
Gary Birzer, who suffered a severed spinal cord and is paralyzed from the waist down, has already incurred medical expenses estimated at $500,000, with at least a year of rehab ahead of him.
In the aftermath, jockeys nationwide, many of them riding without medical insurance, are asking for a financial review of the guild. Petitions were recently circulated from Belmont Park to Santa Anita, asking for an external audit of the guild's books.
The guild, which says it represents more than 1,200 riders, has a history of internal bickering. There was a schism three years ago, when Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day resigned as president after Chris McCarron and a few other riders had ousted the popular John Giovanni as national manager. Now, Wayne Gertmenian, a Pepperdine economics professor who succeeded ex-jockey Giovanni, and Gertmenian's Matrix Capital Associates, a management-consulting firm, are under fire.
"It's the same now as it used to be under the old administration," said Ed King, a New Jersey jockey and, until this year, guild treasurer. "There's a lack of information. When things are done, you wonder just who is making all the decisions. We seem to have people there who aren't doing anything more than just drawing their paychecks. When you start to ask questions, they look at you like you're doing something wrong."
Gertmenian, who calls himself "Dr. G.," denied the contentions.
"We've had an independent audit, and we're satisfied with the results," he said. "There's a very small group of people trying to ruin what good work we've done, and they're the same people who caused trouble in the past. It's all nonsense. When I took over, there were 600 or so members. Now we have double that -- almost all the riders who ride on a regular basis -- and we added a rider like Corey Nakatani just last week. One-half of 1% of this organization might be unhappy."
Robert Colton, a retired jockey and former guild secretary and chief financial officer, was expelled from the guild this year and has been sued by the guild and Matrix. The suit charges Colton with unfair business practices and says that he libeled and slandered the guild.
Colton and McCarron have changed their positions on Gertmenian, whom they supported at the time of Giovanni's departure.
Colton, who exercises horses at Lone Star Park near Dallas, declined to comment, on the advice of his attorney. He has filed a defamation countersuit against the guild and Matrix, charging in court papers that they are guilty of mismanagement and in violation of federal labor laws. Colton also charges the guild with late audits, failure to file mandatory reports with the federal government, double billing and under-reporting travel expenses by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
McCarron has had a falling out with Gertmenian, whom he hand-picked for the guild job. Gertmenian acknowledged the rift but declined to give details.
McCarron, who retired from riding in 2002, recently resigned as general manager of Santa Anita and has taken a larger role with Magna Entertainment Corp., Santa Anita's parent company, which owns more than a dozen tracks.
According to a source familiar with Gertmenian's contract, Gertmenian's salary is $160,000 annually and the guild pays Matrix about $40,000 a month for its services. Birzer's spill occurred at Mountaineer Race Track in Chester, W.Va. King said that he learned after the spill that the group coverage had been dropped, because the guild couldn't afford it, in April 2002. Gertmenian, disputing King's version, said that the policy ran out early in 2001, under Giovanni's watch.
"I've explained [to the jockeys] that they didn't have the coverage," Gertmenian said. "I've traveled the country saying it, and I've been in every jocks' room in the country except about four. I've said it over and over."
Birzer was covered by a policy that many tracks carry through the Thoroughbred Racing Assns., but that coverage has a ceiling of $100,000. Several jockeys, including Jerry Bailey, Mike Smith, John Velazquez and Jose Santos, have pledged a share of their earnings to the Birzer family when they ride on Breeders' Cup day -- eight races worth $14 million on Oct. 30 -- at Lone Star Park.
