After spate of COVID positives, jockey protocols reassessed

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Five jockeys in the past week have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, raising fears that the virus has gained an invisible hold in the U.S. riding community and leading racetracks to pursue additional measures to stop the spread.

Four of the five riders who have tested positive did so after riding on the same card at Los Alamitos in Los Angeles County on July 4, while the fifth rode at Los Alamitos on July 3. Four of those riders then fanned out across the country to ride elsewhere, including tracks in Indiana, Kentucky, New York, and Southern California.

On the bright side, the positives were detected in the riders before any were displaying symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, meaning that protocols in place at most racetracks requiring regular testing of jockeys worked. Unfortunately, coronavirus is contagious well before anyone who has been exposed to the virus displays symptoms, meaning other riders and track employees were put at risk.

“I don’t think it’s a time to panic, but everyone needs to be extra careful now and the racing industry has got to be more consistent in applying their protocols and enforcing them,” said Mindy Coleman, general counsel for The Jockeys’ Guild, which has worked with racetracks and other racing organizations on policies to protect riders. “We certainly want to do our part in keeping racing open during this pandemic, but we have got to see more consistency.”

Two of the jockeys, Martin Garcia and Luis Saez, tested positive after being swabbed at Keeneland in Central Kentucky. During the track’s abbreviated five-day meet, Keeneland was requiring certification of a negative test from every rider at the track within the previous five days. Saez had tested negative from a swab taken four days earlier at Belmont Park in New York, while Garcia was swabbed on Tuesday, prior to the meet starting.

Garcia then traveled to Indiana Grand on Wednesday, but was informed by Kentucky health officials that he had tested positive prior to arriving at that track. Saez rode the Wednesday card at Indiana Grand, was swabbed at Keeneland on Thursday morning, rode that afternoon, and then was pulled off his mounts Friday after the test came back positive. The rider had just finished second in Friday’s second race when he was notified.

Even before Saez tested positive, Indiana Grand put in place a new policy following its July 8 card that now requires all riders at the track to commit exclusively to riding at Indiana Grand. Any rider who wants to ride at Indiana Grand will now have to quarantine for 14 days and test negative before being allowed on the track’s grounds.

Keeneland maintained four separate areas at the track to isolate riders based on where they had ridden prior to arriving at the track.

At Saratoga Race Course, which opens its meet Thursday, all riders will be required to test negative before being allowed on the grounds, according to Patrick McKenna, director of communications for the New York Racing Association. The same protocol was in place for NYRA’s Belmont Park meet, which ended Sunday.

But since the spate of positives has surfaced, NYRA officials have communicated to the track’s riding colony that the association is considering additional measures, keeping in mind that jockeys like Saez and Garcia rode at a handful of different tracks in the week prior to testing positive.

“NYRA is strongly discouraging jockeys from riding in other jurisdictions due to the inconsistency of COVID-19 safety protocols in many states around the country,” McKenna said. “We are actively considering changes to the protocols that would further restrict any out-of-state travel.”

At Saratoga, the first floor of the administration office near the jockeys’ room has been converted into a special jockeys’ quarters in which all riders that travel to the track during its meet will be isolated from its full-time jockey colony, McKenna said. The offices are generally filled with NYRA’s top executives.

At Monmouth Park in New Jersey, which started its delayed meet 10 days ago, all jockeys and valets are swabbed every Thursday so that test results can be known prior to live racing resuming on Friday evening, according to Dennis Drazin, chief executive officer of the management company that operates Monmouth.

For the track’s upcoming Haskell Stakes card on Saturday, which annually attracts top riders from across the United States, any jockey who plans to ride at Monmouth for the day will be required to test negative prior to being allowed on the grounds, Drazin said.

Monmouth has been allowing a limited number of spectators into the track, including horse owners, but those owners will be barred from the paddock and winner’s circle so that riders are not exposed to people who could be carrying the virus but are asymptomatic, Drazin said.

“We’re spending a lot of time looking at this stuff,” Drazin said.

Another rider who tested positive, Flavien Prat, rode on Saturday’s card at Keeneland before returning to Southern California in anticipation of spending the summer racking up wins at Del Mar. Track officials insisted that Prat be tested under protocols requiring a negative test for any rider who traveled to another state and then returned, and he found out Sunday afternoon that he was positive. Frat rode July 4 at Los Alamitos.

“It was the smart thing for Del Mar to do, to protect the local riding colony,” his agent, Derek Lawson, told Daily Racing Form. “They had better test every one of those riders who were in that room at Los Alamitos.”

Lawson said that Prat was not showing any symptoms of the virus. He will be sidelined for at least 10 days, Lawson said.

Prat’s positive followed by two days a positive test for Victor Espinoza, who sought out his own test after reading about the riders testing positive after the July 4 card at Los Alamitos. Espinoza was taken off his mounts for the openingday card at Del Mar while he awaited the test result, and was informed later that day that he was positive.

Although Del Mar’s president, Josh Rubinstein, did not return a phone call Monday, the track said in a press release announcing Prat’s positive test on Sunday that “Del Mar will test all jockeys and jockeys’ room personnel” prior to the track resuming live racing on Friday. Prior to the meet starting, jockeys were required to answer several health-related questions and pass a no-touch temperature check before being allowed on the grounds.

The fifth jockey to test positive was Eduard Rojas Fernandez, who is based at Los Alamitos. Fernandez did not ride at Los Alamitos on July 4, as the others did, but he had one mount on the July 3 card.