Albarado sentencing hearing to be continued in November

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Robby Albarado had a $500 fine upheld Tuesday in Jefferson District Court from his jury conviction last month, but a revocation hearing on whether he will have to serve a 10-day jail term was postponed until November. The conviction is for fourth-degree wanton assault stemming from an April 30 domestic incident that involved a woman named Carolina Martinez.

This latest development will not immediately affect Albarado’s eligibility to ride, according to Dick Brown, a spokesman for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Albarado therefore will continue riding this week at Arlington Park, where he has the mount Saturday on Silver Max, the favorite in the $500,000 Secretariat Stakes on the Arlington Million program.

Brown said via email that Albarado will remain licensed in Kentucky until such time that the commission’s licensing review committee has a chance to convene. No such meeting had been scheduled as of Tuesday. Racing jurisdictions typically employ reciprocity in such legal matters.

The licensing review committee meeting will include a formal discussion of a possible revocation of his license because of a probation violation, said Brown. When Albarado was arrested May 4 for the incident involving Martinez, he already was on probation with the commission for a 2011 domestic-violence charge that involved his then-wife, Kimber. That 2011 charge eventually was dismissed in court after Albarado pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of interfering with a witness, for which he received a suspended sentence that included 10 days in jail. The commission, meanwhile, ultimately allowed him to resume riding, conditional on his avoiding any additional criminal charges.

Part of the Tuesday court hearing focused on whether the suspended sentence from the 2011 case should be revoked and the jail term be served, but Judge Anne Bailey Smith postponed making a ruling until another hearing is held Nov. 14. David Lambertus, attorney for Albarado, said the fine and sentence from his July 13 conviction by a six-person jury will be appealed in the meantime.

Since June 1, Albarado has been riding regularly at Arlington in suburban Chicago after successfully seeking a temporary restraining order in late May in Franklin Circuit Court in Kentucky. Since then, he has ridden twice in other jurisdictions. On July 21 at Colonial Downs, he swept the $600,000 Virginia Derby on Silver Max and the $150,000 Virginia Oaks on Volcat. Last Saturday, he had two mounts at Ellis Park in western Kentucky, with neither winning.

Albarado, a 38-year-old native of Lafayette, La., has ridden professionally since he was 16 and has 4,422 winners and more than $176.5 million in mount earnings to his credit. He was the regular rider of two runners to be voted Horse of the Year, Mineshaft in 2003 and Curlin in 2007-08.