Ortiz, Lezcano, Saez to serve suspensions

ELMONT, N.Y. – Irad Ortiz Jr., Luis Saez, and Jose Lezcano will all be serving suspensions issued by the stewards early in the Belmont Park fall meet, which begins Friday.

Ortiz, the leading jockey at the Saratoga and Belmont spring-summer meets, will miss the first three days of the meet for a careless riding infraction aboard Call Provision in the $100,000 John’s Call Stakes on Aug. 22. Call Provision interfered with fourth-place finisher Patterson Cross and was disqualified from second and placed fourth.

Lezcano will sit out five days – this weekend as well as Sept. 14 and 15 – for his ride aboard Virtual Machine during the eighth race on July 27 at Saratoga. Virtual Machine was disqualified from fourth and placed fifth for interfering with Sir Ballantine.

Saez will serve five days (Sept. 14, 15, 16, 19, and 20) for a careless riding infraction dating back to May 10 when his mount, Houseer, who finished fourth, was disqualified to sixth for interference.

Jockey Junior Alvarado is in the process of appealing a suspension handed him during Saratoga.

Jockeys Manny Franco, Javier Castellano, David Cohen, and Dylan Davis all received $2,000 fines – but no suspensions – for careless riding infractions during the Saratoga meet.

NYRA to offer cross country pick four

The New York Racing Association will host a cross-country pick four wager with different tracks over the next three Saturdays.

This Saturday, NYRA will team with Kentucky Downs to offer the wager, which begins with race 6 from Kentucky Downs, the $500,000 Juvenile Turf Sprint. It continues with race 7 at Belmont, a $40,000 claiming dirt sprint; race 8 from Kentucky Downs, the $450,000 Ladies Turf Sprint; and race 9 from Belmont, a first-level allowance on the turf.

On Sept. 15, NYRA will team with Woodbine and on Sept. 22 Parx to offer the pick four wager. The minimum wager will be 50 cents and the takeout rate is 24 percent.