BY DANIEL VICTOR
Of The Patriot-News
After a horse collapsed 20 yards past the finish line during the fifth race at Penn National Race Course on Saturday night, about 25 jockeys huddled and made an unprecedented decision.
They declared they would no longer ride in any race that included a horse owned by Michael Gill, a New Hampshire man who’s famous in the horse racing industry for both his success and controversy.
The jockeys — and several trainers, owners and outside observers — have accused Gill of dangerous, unethical tactics with his horses, producing what they say is an unusually high rate of horse injuries and deaths. Gill owns hundreds of horses, many of whom he runs at Penn National in Grantville.
Watching third-place finisher Laughing Moon be euthanized after his spill Saturday caused the jockeys to decide they’d no longer chance being behind one of Gill’s horses.
“You cannot believe how worried we are for our own safety and the safety of all the horses,” said Thomas Clifton, a jockey who fell off his horse but was not seriously injured after he tumbled over Laughing Moon. He said the refusal was based on a frequent history of Gill’s horses falling, not the single event.
Gill, reached by phone in New Hampshire, said efforts to force him out are motivated by money, and that he’s a victim of false perceptions.
Other trainers and jockeys have a simple reason to force him out, he said: He wins a lot. He won more races than anyone in the nation in 2005 before dropping out and returning in 2008. In 2005, he won the prestigious Eclipse Award as an outstanding owner. It wasn’t immediately known how much money he makes at Penn National.
Gill has raced horses for two years at Penn National and had his own stalls there for a year. He said he’d welcome scrutiny that would prove he treats his horses well, “like the athletes they are.”
“I tell everybody: They can go to my farm, my barn, they can inspect every one of my horses,” he said. “I never ask for any special treatment. All I ask for is to be treated fairly.”
Being forced out of Penn National would put him out of business, Gill said, adding that he has already talked to his lawyer about suing the track and jockeys’ guild if it happens.
It’s Penn National’s move now. Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming, said track officials will meet with Gill and his trainers later this week as part of an investigation. Gill’s trainers have removed his horses entered in races through Thursday, McErlean said.
Justin Fleming, a spokesman from the Department of Agriculture, said the state’s Racing Commission is investigating, but “most of the action, if there’s action to come, will come from Penn National Race Course.”
Gill has been followed by controversy for most of his horse-racing career. He has sued other race tracks after being booted from tracks in Delaware and Florida.
Among many industry watchers, Gill is an infamous figure. Many of them applauded the jockeys’ refusal to race against his horses.
T.D. Thornton, author of “Not By a Longshot: A Season At a Hard-Luck Horse Track,” called Gill the “ethical nightmare of the horse racing world.”
“Mr. Gill has a win-at-all-costs attitude, and, unfortunately for him, that means treating horses as commodities,” he said.
Gill is viewed as a cash cow because of his big stable, Thornton said. He appeals to smaller tracks and churns out a lot of winners, he said.
Ray Paulick, former editor-in-chief of the trade magazine Blood-Horse Magazine who has covered the industry for 25 years, said Gill is perceived as considering the horses expendable.
“He runs a very large operation, larger than anybody else I’m aware of,” he said. “At least outwardly, he doesn’t seem to focus on anything other than just piling up the numbers of wins and money.”
Some jockeys have resisted racing for safety reasons, but it’s usually due to a bad track or weather, Paulick said. He’s never heard of jockeys refusing to ride because of an owner.
Earl Kindt, an agent for several jockeys at Penn National, said he was proud of the group for fighting back.
“They’re just standing up for themselves, and it’s good that they did it,” he said. “They can’t seem to get anything done, and they’re the ones who end up getting hurt.”
Emilio Flores, a jockey at Penn National, said he spent a day in the hospital last week after tumbling over one of Gill’s horses that fell and had two close calls in the past week. His riding changes when he’s up against one of Gill’s horses, he said.
“I have to watch where his horses are going because I try to avoid them,” Flores said. “I’m not riding comfortable if his horses are in the race. He’s got too many breaking down.”
Anne Maria Cray of Harrisburg owns a horse stable a mile from Penn National and watched from the viewing room Saturday. Those in the crowd who didn’t know racing well were horrified to see Laughing Moon euthanized, she said.
“Or they were horse people and they knew exactly what they were seeing,” she said. “This has become so ridiculously routine with this man. It’s become an outrage.”
Though she’s not racing any horses at Penn National now, she’s vowed to never race against Gill’s horses, she said. Trainers are gathering statistics to build a case against Gill, she said.
Gill said he welcomes the scrutiny, and he believes the statistics support him. The perception of frequent falls are due to his high number of horses, he said.
He had the most starts of any owner at Penn National last year, and ran 2,247 races overall, he said. The horses are subject to the same inspections as everyone else, and they didn’t fail any tests last year, he said.
“I don’t run sore horses,” Gill said. “If they’re sore, I give them away, and I have a history of doing that.”