In the horse barns surrounding New York’s storied Belmont racetrack, where elite race horses fight for first place and spectators wager millions each season, the day starts at 5 a.m. for workers like Aguilar. He’s tasked with caring for those thoroughbreds, and he lives onsite along with nearly 1,000 other workers in a complex built by and for the industry. It contains dormitories, a food pantry, a child care center, and its own church.
Before the sun rises, he walks to the barns to ready the 1,000-pound horses in his care for exercises. After their workouts, he’ll lead the horses on cool-down walks and prepare ice baths for their muscles. On weekends the workday can stretch longer if he helps with race days, which can feature more than a dozen high-stakes races with multi-million dollar purses. This morning routine has occupied him 6-7 days per week, all year long, for the past two decades. He makes around $15 per hour with no paid time off.
The man, who chose to go by his last name Aguilar because he fears retaliation for speaking out, said he initially moved to New York when a friend told him horse racing would pay more than the painting and yard work jobs he had before. Despite a fear of horses, he took the leap and moved to Queens, hoping to earn more money to send back to his family in Mexico. “One wants to give their children the best,” he said.
But for years, Aguilar said the trainers who have employed him have failed to pay him all of what he’s owed, and a Documented investigation found that he’s far from alone. In an analysis of data obtained through a lawsuit with the New York Department of Labor, Documented found evidence that the state’s relatively small horse racing industry faces an outsized crisis of stolen wages.
