On the heels of two serious accidents in 2010, National Steeplechase Association officials want to keep safety at the forefront this year. They’ve now made health insurance mandatory for jockeys in NSA-sanctioned races and secured additional coverage for riders.
Jake Chalfin was paralyzed from the chest down on Sept. 18 at the Blue Ridge Fall Races (Va.). He has completed physical therapy at a rehabilitation facility and returned to his home in Coatesville, Pa. He hopes to start back to work at a landscaping company this month.
Jorge Torres has not regained consciousness from his accident, Nov. 13 at the Colonial Cup (S.C.), and remains hospitalized there.
Virginia has required riders in point-to-points to have health insurance, but the NSA did not have the same rule until now.
The NSA Board of Directors secured an additional accident policy through Zurich Insurance Company and raised the NSA jockey license fee from $100 to $200 to help offset the cost.
“We had a policy back in the 1990s, but after we had a slew of accidents it was dropped,” NSA general manager Pete McGivney said. “This is a supplemental policy, so if their policy is exhausted this will come into play.”
With all the news about concussions in football players and other sports, the NSA is also highlighting the helmet policy they’ve had in place for years. Jockeys must wear helmets that conform to the current ASTM standards or are approved by the Jockey Club of Great Britain.
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“The helmets will most likely be checked by the clerk of scales,” NSA chairman of the Stewards Advisory Committee Dwight Hall said. “They know which helmets meet our requirements. Any new jockey will of course be asked to show their helmet.”
The NSA is also reminding jockeys that any helmet that sustains a hit from a fall should be discarded because the integrity of the helmet may be compromised.
As another safety measure, NSA staff hope to keep better track of horses, riders and trainers at the point-to-point level.
For the first time this winter, the NSA held safety meetings and had representatives from all the governing bodies, including the Virginia Point-To-Point Association, the Virginia Steeplechase Association, the Steeplechasing Owners and Trainers Association and the Maryland Steeplechase Association.
One of the new policies coming out of this meeting is that new trainers and riders applying for a license will serve a probation period.
“We need the point-to-point associations to work together with horse problems and let us know about rider falls,” Hall said. “We do not want questionable horses slipping through to our level. And they [the point-to-points] are talking about for the first time ever doing drug testing. We want to help them with that.”
Even though point-to-points have never had drug testing, many of them do have purses with as much as $10,000.
