Five jockeys to miss start of Saratoga with suspensions
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Five jockeys, including defending meet leading rider Irad Ortiz Jr., will miss several days at the beginning of the Saratoga meet due to suspensions handed them by the New York stewards at last summer’s Saratoga season and, in the case of Ortiz and Luis Saez, penalties assessed them from Delaware Park stewards earlier this month.
Ortiz and Saez will each serve six days’ worth of suspensions − three from Delaware and three from last summer at Saratoga − that will force them to miss the first four racing programs of the Saratoga meet that begins Friday.
Ortiz will miss Friday’s opening day card as that is the last of three days handed him by the Delaware Park stewards for his ride on Mad Banker in a starter allowance on June 13 in which he was disqualified from first to second. Ortiz also will miss July 4, 5, and 9 at Saratoga as a result of a careless riding infraction from the third race last Aug. 16 at Saratoga in which he and his mount, Treaty Obligation, were disqualified from first to second in a $40,000 claiming race.
Similarly, Saez will miss Friday’s card as that is the final day of a three-day suspension handed him by the Delaware stewards for his ride in the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial in which he allowed his mount, Storm Miami, to drift in, causing interference and he was disqualified from third to fourth. Saez will sit out July 4, 5, and 9 due to careless riding during the running of the fifth race at Saratoga last Aug. 15 in which he and his mount Founders were disqualified from first and placed second.
Kendrick Carmouche will miss the first five racing days of the meet − July 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10 − for his ride in last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup in which he allowed Phileas Fogg to come in at the start of the race, which led to a chain reaction in which Ortiz was unseated from his mount, Mindframe. Phileas Fogg was disqualified from third and ordered unplaced.
Katie Davis will also miss the first five days of the meet owing to two separate incidents that occurred on Aug. 28 at Saratoga. The first incident involved the horse Quiddity who was disqualified from second and placed fourth in that day’s first race. The second incident came later on that card in which Davis was cited for careless riding. There was no change made in that race as Davis’s mount Dragoneer finished behind the horse she impeded.
Lastly, jockey Chris Elliott will sit out the first three days of the meet due to careless riding during the fourth race on Aug. 27 in which his mount Fredo was disqualified from first to last.
In Feb. 2022, the New York State Gaming Commission passed a rule that requires jockeys to serve their suspensions at the meet at which their violation occurred.
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