The final eight races of Aqueduct’s Sunday card were canceled when the jockeys refused to ride, citing myriad differences with management of the New York Racing Association.  Kendrick Carmouche, one of the leading riders on the circuit and the New York representative for the Jockeys’ Guild, cited several instances over the last year or more that the riders feel demonstrated a lack of respect by management to them.  The most recent came Sunday, when NYRA officials sent home Brian Pochman, the assistant clerk of scales. It was unclear exactly why Pochman was sent home.  “They are making him do more than he’s supposed to and he said he wasn’t comfortable with doing that, so they sent him home and now they’re trying to put other people in his spot to make the races go and that’s just going to make things worse because they don’t know what they’re doing,” Carmouche said.  Pochman, who also works as a clocker at NYRA, confirmed that he had been sent home, but declined further comment.  Among the responsibilities for an assistant clerk of scales is to weigh the jockeys in and out before and after a race.  Andrew Offerman, NYRA’s senior vice president/racing operations, said he was called down to the jockey’s room after the running of Sunday’s first race.  “The concern raised was relative to how this procedure that NYRA has in place relative to fulfilling the clerk of scales and assistant clerk of scales duties was being completed, or an expression that he wasn’t comfortable doing that,” Offerman said in a phone interview with Daily Racing Form. “Our duties have been focused on weighing in, weighing out, recording appropriate weights within the scale system itself as well as back-up documentation to support it in the event that system doesn’t work correctly.”  Carmouche said a situation involving NYRA not granting a valet full-time employment status last December and a decision by management in April to no longer allow the families of jockeys in the jock’s room were other examples of what is causing a rift between management and the riders. Carmouche also cited that Jack Welsh, a former clerk of scales, quit earlier this year.  “All of the things I just told you are the reasons why we are canceling today,” Carmouche said. “They don’t respect us, they don’t care about our feelings, they don’t care about making us feel like we’re the head of the sport because we are the jocks, we do make the show go on. It’s the jockeys and the valets standing up for what’s right.”  Offerman said that NYRA felt the issues other than the situation regarding Pochman - who has not been fired - were resolved.  “When you look at all those individual issues, we, NYRA, negotiated in good faith with the union that represents the valets, reached a conclusion on that issue relative to their new union contract, which I believe was signed earlier this year,” Offerman said. “The issue relative to the jocks’ room being a restricted area is defined in rule and is something the stewards are in charge of enforcing, but NYRA management as well as NYRA’s steward have met with the Guild numerous times over the course of the summer to work through that issue to the best of our abilities. This issue to me is their concerns about the assistant clerk of scales role, I think those other issues have been resolved through the appropriate channels.”  Offerman said the jockeys refused to meet with management later Sunday or on Monday to discuss their differences. Offerman said he would reach out to Terry Meyocks, president/CEO of the Jockey’s Guild to see if a resolution can be reached before racing is scheduled to resume on Thursday.  Tina Bond, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, said that NYRA should reimburse horsemen for the expenses involved with attempting to run Sunday’s program.  “For all of the trainers, all of the owners, all of the horses that shipped over, I would hope that NYRA pay out of NYRA funds - not the purse account - to reimburse for their help going over there [from Belmont Park],” Bond said. “I would hope they would do that because they could not diffuse the situation. This is a bad day for our sport in New York.”  Provided racing  resumes Thursday, there will be a pick-6 carryover of $79,410 being offered on races 3 through 8.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.