N.Y. Changes Rule Mandating Coupling of Married Jockeys

New York State regulators unanimously gave final approval June 29 to a change in rules that previously made it mandatory for married jockeys to be coupled in races for the purposes of wagering.

It took more than a year of efforts by jockeys Trevor McCarthy and Katie Davis, who were married in December 2020 and at the time riding at Aqueduct Racetrack, as well as state lawmakers who unsuccessfully sought last year to change the requirement through state statute.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last fall vetoed a measure to end what lawmakers called a "sexist and outdated" coupling rule that did not, for instance, apply to brothers who might be racing in the same race.

Hochul at the time said the rule was intended to uphold the "integrity" of horse racing, but she ordered the state gaming commission to revisit the requirement to see ways in which it could be relaxed.

The state's gaming commission earlier this year preliminarily okayed the change to end the coupling requirement, and Wednesday it was given final approval.

The rule, lawmakers said, also applied to parents or other members of a jockey's household besides a spouse. McCarthy and Davis McCarthy had just gotten married before they began racing at Aqueduct when they first learned of New York's coupling rule.

"It's not the 1800s anymore. The rule needs to be changed,'' Davis said at the time.

The rule finalized Wednesday does still give gaming commission stewards "the discretion to require coupling in any circumstances in which such steward concludes coupling is necessary in the public interest."

The commission received five public comments before taking final action. The rule change was backed by the New York Racing Association and the New York Thoroughbred Breeders. The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association also backed the change but wanted it expanded so that horses trained by those with relationships to other trainers are not required to be coupled.

"As an example, NYTHA objects to coupling of entries when a trainer trains two horses in a race, one of which is owned by the trainer's spouse,'' the commission's counsel said in a memo to the agency's board.

The memo said Thoroughbred horse owner Tina Maria Bond objected to the board about the coupling of her horses trained by her husband. Trainer James Bond wrote the board to say the coupling rule will be "detrimental to my business" but that he did not explain how or why, and did not specifically address the heart of the new rule change: uncoupling for relatives of jockeys entered in the same race.

In a separate action, the gaming commission also approved creating standard time periods—as soon as 10 days depending on the section of law that applies—for individuals to request a formal hearing before the state if they are denied a horse racing license. The change was backed by the NYTHA and the NYTB.