Alvarado mulling appeal of Derby fine, suspension
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Jockey Junior Alvarado was fined $62,000 and suspended two days by the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority for using his whip eight times on Sovereignty in winning the Kentucky Derby on May 3 at Churchill Downs. HISA rules allow a rider to use the whip only six times in a race.
Alvarado disagreed with the penalties and has not ruled out appealing them, he told Daily Racing Form on Saturday. He has 10 days to inform HISA if he plans to file an appeal.
“I would like to just get it over with and put it behind me, I don’t want to carry this one extra day, but at the same time I don’t want to give up that easily like they were right,” Alvarado said. “I would like to move forward and fix something. As everybody can see, it’s unfair the penalties we’re facing. Maybe [by appealing] we can get something good out of this.”
Alvarado would have been fined $31,000 –10 percent of the winner’s share of the purse – and given a one-day suspension but this was his second violation in a 180-day period. On Dec. 1, Alvarado was deemed to have used his whip seven times when guiding Scotland to victory in the $250,000 Cherokee Mile, also at Churchill Downs.
Alvarado, via Zoom, met with the Churchill stewards on Thursday and Friday. He said the stewards asked him to count how many times he hit Sovereignty and came up with six. Alvarado said there were two other times when he made the action as though he was going to hit Sovereignty but did not make contact with the horse.
Alvarado said since the HISA rules limiting six strikes came into existence “I’ve been swinging the whip like I will hit the horse but I don’t make contact. I make the horse think I’m going to hit them and they keep going thinking that I’m going to hit them.”
Alvarado said that during his meeting with the stewards, he tried to point out the two times where he swung but did not make contact with the horse but the stewards but got no response from the three stewards.
“They didn’t argue that I did, they stayed silent,” Alvarado said. “They made me count the times that I had contact with the horse, when I asked him if they could count where they think I had contact they didn’t.”
Alvarado said in no way did he abuse Sovereignty with his whip
“I didn’t abuse the horse,” he said. “Nobody can tell me, even if they can prove that I hit the horse two extra times, it was in an abusing way, it’s just ridiculous. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime and I don’t think there was any crime.”
If Alvarado does not appeal, he will serve the two day suspension May 29-30, which are live racing days in Kentucky but dark in New York where he rides.
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