Keeping owners happy is regarded as something of a prerequisite for both trainers and jockeys, no matter how eccentric that owner may be.

So keeping on the right side of an owner who was the leading prize-money winner in the United States last year would seem to be a no-brainer. However, for once, jockeys have been thinking beyond the next winner and refused to take rides in races involving owner Michael Gill.

Gill, 54, has led North American racing in terms of winners four times since 2003, including last year and in 2005, when he was voted the Eclipse Award for top owner – a recognition that was far from universally welcomed. In 2009, Gill won 369 races and $6.7million but his activities have centred on quantity rather than quality to the point where he rarely has a runner in a stakes race. Instead, most of his horses are seen at low-profile tracks like Penn National.

That is his choice, as is his somewhat aggressive claiming policy but the more serious allegation is over his running of horses who may have paid for his ambition with their lives.

Trouble started brewing two weeks ago when one of Gill’s horses, Melodeeman, fractured a cannon bone in a race at Penn National and, two days later, Laughing Moon collapsed and was put down after finishing third at the same course. Both Ricky Frazier, Laughing Moon’s rider, and Thomas Clifton, who was unseated when his horse, Sylvia’s Forte, was hampered by Laughing Moon, escaped injury but those jockeys riding at the track that day refused to continue racing until Gill’s entry in the next race, Justin M, was removed from the runners list. Their view was that the number of breakdowns among horses from Gill’s string was so great that they were making racing unacceptably dangerous.

The figures state that six of Gill’s horses have suffered major breakdowns at Penn National since October 1st, with another nine horses either pulled up, eased, or finishing lame but Gill refutes the suggestions that horses running in his colours have a record of breaking down more often than those from similar stables.

Faced with what amounted to a jockeys strike, the racecourse executive at Penn National initially refused to accept entries from Gill for races run between January 27th and 30th and then asked the Pennsylvania racing commission to investigate the breakdowns. Gill had four horses entered for Wednesday’s nine-race card but the commission has informed Gill that his horses will not be allowed to run at the track in future, although it is still not clear whether the owner is able to run horses at neighbouring Philadelphia Park.

The commission ruling stated that Gill’s further participation “will jeopardize the orderly conduct of the race meet” and that “your presence and continued participation has been inconsistent with the best interest of racing.”

Eric Schippers, spokesman for Penn National Gaming, told the Daily Racing Form: “We plan to comply fully with this, and we’re pleased the commission took such swift action to our request to investigate this matter.”

Gill replied by regarding himself as the injured party. “To me, all this means is they found nothing on me and anyone could be thrown out for whatever they consider to be ‘the best interest of racing,’ ” he said. “If they had even the littlest thing to hang on me, believe me, they would have.”

In a variation of the time-honoured you-can’t-fire-me-because-I-quit routine Gill had already announced he was selling up his bloodstock interests. Rightly or wrongly Gill would not be allotted top weight in the popularity handicap and has been the subject of harsh words from various sections of American racing since the Laughing Moon breakdown. He has claimed to have received at least two death threats which resulted in his family temporarily moving to a hotel.

This is not the first time that a track has decided that Gill is bad for business and several courses, including Delaware Park, Philadelphia Park and all New York’s major tracks have refused to give him stalls in their training barns.

This furore comes at a time when American racing is still agonising over a possible transition from dirt, which is known to be a root cause of many of the training and racing injuries that plague American racing at all levels, to more equine-friendly synthetic racing surfaces such a Tapeta, which has been well received since it was laid down at Meydan racecourse in Dubai.

However, one thing is sure – the jockeys at Penn National are not prepared to be taken for a ride.   

Paul Wheeler