Ruling on Meche within month

After hearing testimony Tuesday, a civil district court judge in New Orleans said she will issue a ruling on the Louisiana State Racing Commissions’s suspension of the jockey Donnie Meche within a month.

Judge Rosemary Ledet listened to arguments from Meche’s lawyer, Sonny Garcia, and the attorney for the commission, Kim Chatelain, during a hearing. Garcia asked that the court overturn a one-year suspension levied against Meche, while Chatelain contended the commission and stewards at Delta Downs were correct in suspending Meche for failing to do his best to win a race last winter.

Delta stewards suspended Meche six months, and the commission increased the suspension to a year after denying Meche’s appeal of the stewards’ ruling this spring.

Meche was issued a stay of the suspension and had planned to begin riding at Louisiana Downs last month, but the commission has refused to issue him a jockey’s license.