We Now Pause For This Short (Ahem) Announcement

We have a lot of respect for jockeys, especially considering the dangerous nature of their sport, and the raw deal they seem to be getting from track owners. But when we saw this story, we had to giggle a little bit. Come on, we're not made of stone. It seems that several jockeys got into a physical confrontation with executive members of their own Jockey's Guild at Jockey World Headquarters (our term) in Monrovia, Calif. on Tuesday. The Guild had just fired their chief executive, L. Wayne Gertmenian, and chief operating officer, Albert Fiss, at a board meeting. Several of the jockeys — accompanied by Gertmenian's replacement, Darrell Haire — then went to Gertmenian's office to clear it out. Finding it locked, they called a locksmith, who got them in. Then Gertmenian and Fiss showed up. We pick up the action from there, as reported by the Daily Racing Form:

"Gertmenian demanded that Haire and the jockeys leave, and when they refused, Gertmenian shoved Haire to the floor, according to the witnesses. Fiss, who is more than six feet tall and 300 pounds, began physically removing jockeys from the office, although some resisted."

Several inappropriate images come to mind here, such as the sport of dwarf-tossing, the fight scene between Andre the Giant and Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride and of course this. We sincerely apologize for all of it, but like we said, we're only human.

Jockeys Scuffle With Ousted CEO [MSNBC]