Aqueduct disqualification based on carrying incorrect weight spurs controversy

OZONE PARK, N.Y – The Aqueduct stewards have disqualified Wildcat Belle from first place in the fifth race at Aqueduct on Feb. 8 because she didn’t carry the proper weight, according to a stewards ruling.

Wildcat Belle, trained by David Cannizzo, was entered on Feb. 3 for the Feb. 8 race. At that time, based on her record, she was assigned to carry 121 pounds. However, Wildcat Belle won a race at Parx on Feb. 5. With that victory, under the conditions, Wildcat Belle should have carried 123 pounds in the Feb. 8 race at Aqueduct.

Wildcat Belle carried 121 pounds and won the Feb. 8 race by five lengths under Paco Lopez.

According to the ruling, carrying less weight than required is improper practice and “any horse that has been the subject of improper practice may be disqualified for such time and for such races as the stewards shall determine.”

Owner Ben Mondello is appealing the ruling, which orders Wildcat Belle unplaced and means Mondello would forfeit the first-place purse of $30,000.

“If I have to take it to the federal courts I’ll do that,” Mondello said. “To me, it’s really insanity. It’s more about principle.”

Alan Pincus, the attorney for Mondello, said it is the racetrack’s responsibility to make sure the horses carry the proper weight.

Further, Pincus argues that because certain items aren’t counted in the weights – including extra clothes worn by jockeys on a cold winter day – that all horses in the race carried more than their assigned weight.

Pincus said weight assignments in New York “are a fraud on the public.”

“They make a mockery of the scale of weights,” he said. “Now you want to disqualify me under those conditions.”

The ruling was issued on Friday, one day after Mondello and Pincus met with NYRA’s three stewards at Aqueduct. According to Mondello, New York State Gaming Commission steward Steve Lewandowski walked out of the meeting before it was finished.

“I believe when my lawyer presents the facts to someone who’s rational and can have an adult conversation, not someone who storms out of the room like an 8-year-old because they don’t like what they hear, this ruling will be overturned,” Mondello said.

Lewandowski acknowledged that he left the meeting after Mondello and Pincus “accused me of deceiving the racing public."

"I’ve never deceived anybody of anything in my life,” he said.

If the ruling stands, Clairvoyant Lady, trained by Jeremiah Englehart for Mike Repole, will be elevated to first place.