It's the Law: Getting more money for their run

Last in a series of reports on new laws that take effect Jan. 1.

ALBANY – Chad Schvaneveldt leans back against his locker, relaxing after a late-morning nap in the cramped jockey's room at Golden Gate Fields.

Some of his fellow riders trudge by to the "sweat box," a closed heated cabinet in the corner of the room where an overweight jockey can lose five pounds in an hour.

Schvaneveldt's sleep-streaked face and 114-pound frame look older than his 43 years. He has a stent in his pancreas. He says various riding injuries have sidelined him for at least part of each year since he was 30.

For him, the $10-a-race bump the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized in the minimum wage for jockeys means something.

"It's been a long time coming," Schvaneveldt said softly. "In the 26 years I've been riding, it's only gone up $10. That's not much."

Beginning today, the new law raises from $50 to $60 the average minimum amount losing jockeys make for riding each race at California thoroughbred and quarter horse tracks. Assembly Bill 649 by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, authorizes another $10-per-race increase in 2010 and $5 in 2012. Future hikes will be indexed to increases in the state minimum wage.

Ma pushed the raise through the Legislature after thoroughbred horse owners and the Jockeys' Guild negotiated the deal. The extra money will come from the horse owners, who pay the jockeys.

Jockeys riding horses who finish in the money – first, second or third – get a percentage of the purse, while the also-rans typically get the minimum. Ma's bill also establishes on July 1 a separate minimum for jockeys who finish fourth – up to 2 percent of the owner's share.

The bill, supporters said, reflects the fact that not every jockey who gets on a racehorse is earning six-figure paydays and riding in the Breeders' Cup or the Kentucky Derby. More than likely they're toiling at dusty fairgrounds or piecing together a few rides a week in races with much smaller purses.

"They don't earn a lot of money except at the very top levels," said Barry Broad, the Sacramento-based lobbyist for the Jockeys' Guild. "There's a lot of sympathy for them. They are probably the lowest paid professional athletes with the greatest risk of injury."

While Ma said the average jockey earns only about $42,000 a year, salaries vary wildly from jockey to jockey and year to year. Much of it hinges on health and success – the better riders and the ones who stay healthy get more mounts each day.

"One year you may make $50,000 a year," Schvaneveldt said. "Another year you make make $200,000."

About 30 percent of a jockey's gross winnings goes to the agent – who arranges the mounts – and to his or her valet, who keeps track of equipment and assists the riders as they prepare for several races each day.

"I'd say for about 60 percent of the riders (the raise is) going to mean a significant amount," said 44-year-old jockey Joe Castro, who has been riding since he was 20. "That $10 doesn't sound like much but if you're riding like I said 20 to 30 horses a week…or a month, that adds up, especially if you don't win a lot. If you ride 20 races a week that comes to $200. That'll cover your health premiums."

Castro pointed out that jockeys are independent contractors who must devote a portion of their earnings to supplement costly health care and disability policies and plan for a retirement that could easily begin before their 50th birthday.

Injuries are frequent and can devastate a jockey's bottom line.

"Every year, it's either a collarbone or an ankle or something," Schvaneveldt said.

Castro said he's been lucky that "for the most part, I've had nothing with any extensive stays in the hospital," but noted that he's broken every bone on his left side at one time or another.

"For some reason, I guess I always fall in that direction," he chuckled.

Even 19-year-old Kyle Kaenel, who ranks among Golden Gate Fields' top riders during the current race meeting and is making in his estimation, between $4,000 and $8,000 a week, knows that his success could be erased with a severe fall.

He has recovered from breaking a bone in his neck and two bones in his back.

"It's something that you can't think about because if you ride scared you might as well not be riding at all," Kaenel said. "It's something that's gonna happen, but you just have to pray that it doesn't happen this trip and you can get around there safe and everyone else can get around there safe."

Participants said negotiations over the raise came largely without acrimony. Representatives of the quarter horse racing industry, in which purses are smaller, briefly opposed the bill, but ultimately agreed to be included.

This year's $10 raise will cost the thoroughbred owners nearly $2 million, "not a small amount by any stretch of the imagination," said Drew Couto, president of Thoroughbred Owners of California.

"We have a good relationship with them," Couto, a horse owner and brother of a jockey, said of the jockeys' union. "They said it had been a while since the last raise and we looked at it, and they were right. We need to take care of these guys."

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