Hernandez-Ortega to appeal ban for alleged buzzer use

Pierre Hernandez-Ortega, the rider whose license was revoked last Thursday by the stewards at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., for allegedly possessing an electrical device, will appeal the decision and seek a stay of the ruling, his attorney said on Tuesday.

Bill Goldman, the attorney, said the stewards did not demonstrate during a May 22 hearing at Parx that Hernandez-Ortega was in possession of the device. Instead, he said the device was found “on the floor in the vicinity of the jockeys’ room” during a search by Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission personnel after the fifth race at Parx on May 12. The appeal and request for stay were likely to be filed Wednesday, Goldman said.

“There was no evidence presented that Pierre possessed or controlled a mechanical device,” Goldman said. “The proper decision would be to grant a stay at this time so Pierre can go about his trade.”

Goldman said the stewards claimed that surveillance video provided evidence linking Hernandez-Ortega to the device. However, that video was not shown during the hearing, nor was it provided to him for review.

After the May 12 search, racing-commission personnel ordered another jockey, Angel Castillo, off his mounts for the rest of the card and escorted him from the track. The May 22 hearing instead focused on Hernandez-Ortega, exonerating Castillo, who was the second-leading rider at the track at the time of the search.

Alan Pincus, the attorney for Castillo, has called for commission personnel to retract their statements tying Castillo to the device. On Tuesday, he said he does not know what legal action the rider may take to address the mix-up, though he has said that Castillo’s reputation has been critically damaged by the commission’s decision to remove him from his mounts and allege that the device was his.

Walter Remmert, acting executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission, said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement that commission personnel had initially linked the device – which is often called a battery, machine, or buzzer – to Castillo because it was found in a glove with the rider’s initials on it.

“Once the battery was found, the commission exercised caution and took Mr. Castillo off his mount [sic] until all the evidence could be reviewed,” Remmert wrote. “Upon further investigation, it was revealed that the gloves were in the possession of Mr. Hernandez-Ortega the whole time, not Mr. Castillo.”

Remmert declined to answer specific questions about the evidence tying the device to Hernandez-Ortega, citing the pending appeal.

“Some facts of the case are still protected until the final disposition,” he wrote.