Desormeaux to serve one-day suspension for whip use

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux will serve a one-day suspension on Saturday for excessive use of the whip in a winning ride aboard Lord Prancealot in the Graduation Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds on Friday.

Desormeaux was adjudged to have used his whip eight times, two strikes over the limit. In addition to the one-day suspension, he was fined $692.50 for the infraction, according to a ruling published by Del Mar stewards last Saturday.

Desormeaux will be allowed to ride Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, since graded stakes are exempt from routine suspensions. Desormeaux is booked to ride Impact Warrior in the $300,000 race for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

Lord Prancealot, co-owned by Rusty Brown and breeder Jeff Ganje, is unbeaten in two starts, including a maiden race for statebreds at five furlongs on July 29.

Trainer Jeff Bonde said Sunday that races such as the $125,000 I’m Smokin Stakes for statebreds at six furlongs on Sept. 8 and the Grade 3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf at a mile on Sept. 10 are late summer possibilities for Lord Prancealot.

Gonzales reappointed to CHRB

Oscar Gonzales was recently reappointed to the California Horse Racing Board by Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to a press release issued earlier this month.

Gonzales has served on the racing board since 2019 and will now have a second four-year term. His first term ended in late July. Gonzales is currently vice chairman of the racing board and is chairman of the regulatory agency’s dates committee.

Gonzales is a vice president for a renewable energy company, having previously served as an assistant secretary of administration in the Department of Agriculture since 2021.

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