(l-r) Jockeys Robbie Walsh, Willie McCarthy, and Jeff Murphy greet a couple of young racegoers in support of the Injured Jockeys Fund. / Kathy Rubin photo
At the Calcutta party the night before the Blue Ridge Fall Races this year, racegoers will bid on the jockeys instead of the horses. A number of jockeys—among them Robbie Walsh, Willie McCarthy, Jeff Murphy, Kieran Norris, and Zoe Valvo—will attend the affair to mingle with the crowd and help promote their very own cause, the American Steeplechase Injured Jockeys Fund.
The Calcutta will take place on Friday night, September 19, 2014, and the races will go off on Saturday, September 20. The Blue Ridge Fall Races traditionally support local charities, but this year a portion of the race revenues will be donated to the Injured Jockeys Fund, a relatively recent endeavor that is gaining momentum under enthusiastic leadership.
For every jump jockey who rides races it’s not a question of if; it’s a question of how often he or she will fall and whether or not there will be injuries. With thousand pound Thoroughbred racehorses all galloping to the same fences at thirty-five miles an hour, falls and injuries are part and parcel of the game. And some injuries turn out to be life-changers for the jockey.
For National Steeplechase Association sanctioned races, the NSA administers a fund—the Steeplechase Fund—that helps out with living expenses and other needs for the benefit of not only jockeys but trainers, assistants, grooms, exercise riders and other stable help. Jockeys that ride in sanctioned races are required to have health insurance, and they also pay a fee for every race ridden for a policy that covers what their insurance doesn’t cover.
However, until the inauguration of the American Steeplechase Injured Jockeys Fund, there was no organized way to help riders injured in non-sanctioned hunt point-to-points. The point-to-points are the training grounds for both horses and jockeys and are a spring tradition for many hunt clubs.
The fund was the brainchild of jockey Robbie Walsh. Injured himself, Walsh was the beneficiary of a successful community fund raiser. After he recovered, he donated the leftover monies to start the Injured Jockeys Fund.
The jockeys are enthusiastically helping themselves as well. Darren Nagle and Jody Petty, after sharing the winning jockey award of $1,500 at the 2013 Radnor spring meet, announced they were donating their prize to the Injured Jockeys Fund.
Kathy Rubin, spearheading publicity and fund raising for the organization, recruits active jockeys to appear at sponsor tents at various races—like the Blue Ridge Fall Races—to autograph special IJF T-shirts and other merchandise available for sale to racegoers with all proceeds benefitting the fund.
Gregg Ryan, MFH of the Piedmont Foxhounds and the Snickersville Hounds, a former race rider himself, heads up Lee and Mason Financial in Virginia. Ryan’s company administers the fund—the accounting and the dispensing of benefits—at no cost to the fund.
Steeplechase racing—a blood relative to foxhunting—merits our support. Many of the jockeys whip-in to their local packs or ride with the field during their off season, and it’s great fun watching them cross the country on their racehorses. Please support them at the Blue Ridge Fall Races and wherever they appear in your own racing communities.
Donations to the American Steeplechase Injured Jockeys Fund may be mailed to: ASIJF, c/o Lee and Mason Financial, PO Box 209, Northville, NY 12134. The ASIJF is qualified under paragraph 501(c)3 of the tax code, and contributions are fully deductible.
Posted September 7, 2014