TRA to ask Guild about $2.2M

The Thoroughbred Racing Associations will ask the Jockeys' Guild to immediately account for the $2.2 million that the TRA has given the Guild in each of the past two years, TRA officials said after a board meeting Thursday.

Widespread concern by member tracks over the lack of a catastrophic insurance policy for jockeys is the reason for the request, said TRA president Joe Harper. The Guild allowed a policy that provided such coverage to lapse in 2002.

When asked if the Guild would reply to the TRA's request,

L. Wayne Gertmenian, president of the Guild, said: "I have to wait to see what they ask for."

TRA tracks had believed the Guild was using the TRA's payments to purchase the coverage, Harper said. Harper and Chris Scherf, the TRA's executive vice president, said TRA tracks did not know the Guild had allowed the policy to lapse until the rider Gary Birzer was critically injured at Mountaineer Race Track earlier this year.

The policy cost about $450,000 in 2001, according to Guild documents. At the end of 2002, the Guild had $4.2 million in cash, according to financial forms filed with the Department of Labor, up from $2.1 million at the beginning of the year.