Rispoli to serve three-day suspension for interference

Jockey Umberto Rispoli, who won two Grade 1 races on the same program for the first time in his career on Monday, has only one mount at Santa Anita on Saturday, the first day of a three-day suspension for causing interference in a race on May 24.

Rispoli is booked to ride Shiloh’s Mistress in the Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on turf. Rispoli is permitted to ride graded stakes during routine suspensions.

On May 24 at Santa Anita, Rispoli was cited for failing to maintain a straight course on race winner Crazy Cavalier in the day’s first race. Crazy Cavalier was demoted to third.

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The suspension covers racing days on Saturday and Sunday this weekend and June 7. There is racing at Santa Anita on Friday, but Rispoli is booked to ride two stakes that day at Penn National.

Rispoli will resume riding at Santa Anita on a full-time basis on June 8.

On Monday, Rispoli won the $301,500 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares on turf on Anisette, and the $303,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf aboard Johannes. Rispoli had won both races in the past – the 2021 Shoemaker on Smooth Like Strait, and the 2022 Gamely on Ocean Road.

“Having my second Gamely and Shoemaker Mile on the same day is just a dream come true,” he said of the two wins after Monday’s program.

Through Monday, Rispoli ranked third in the jockey standings at the Santa Anita spring meeting with 18 wins, trailing Antonio Fresu (21 wins) and Juan Hernandez (20).

Rispoli, 35, began riding in his native Italy in 2005 and has ridden more than 2,000 winners in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Rispoli relocated from Hong Kong to California in late 2019 and has won 493 races in the United States through Thursday.

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