Racing at Aqueduct was almost cancelled after the sixth race Saturday when the jockeys, infuriated that a fellow rider lay in the paddock without medical attention for nearly 10 minutes after being kicked by a horse, threatened to sit out the rest of the card.

When Junior Alvarado was kicked in the groin as the horses were being readied for the sixth race, the stewards tried to summon the EMTs at the racetrack, but for an as-yet-undisclosed reason, there was no response. Finally, as Alvarado lay shivering on the ground, jockey David Cohen and two other men placed him on a horse blanket and carried him back to the jocks’ room. One of the two ambulances at the track finally responded, and Alvarado was taken to Jamaica Hospital.

Post time for the sixth race was delayed eight minutes. Afterward, the jockeys held an angry meeting to consider calling it a day, and only agreed to ride again after NYRA management admitted there was a SNAFU and promised to correct it. The seventh race went off 19 minutes late.