Snafu leaves Castellano without mount in Sword Dancer

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The stewards have forced jockey Javier Castellano to sit out Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga after he elected not to keep a commitment he had made to ride Twilight Eclipse in the race.

Matt Muzikar, who is the agent for Castellano, also gave a call to trainer Todd Pletcher to ride Bowling Green winner Red Rifle in the Sword Dancer. Neither the connections of Red Rifle nor those of Twilight Eclipse would allow Castellano out of his calls on those horses, so instead he will not ride in the race.

Joel Rosario will ride Twilight Eclipse, and Jose Ortiz will ride Red Rifle.

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According to Tom Albertrani, trainer of Twilight Eclipse, Muzikar confirmed his call to ride Twilight Eclipse even after Red Rifle won the Bowling Green here Aug. 1 with Castellano aboard.

Muzikar said he went to Albertrani five or six days before entries to try and get out of the commitment on Twilight Eclipse in order to ride Red Rifle for Pletcher, who is Castellano’s main client.

“I felt Matt was obligated to keep his call, especially going into a race like this,” Albertrani said.

Castellano won the Grade 1 Man o’ War on Twilight Eclipse. He was out of town when Twilight Eclipse ran third in the United Nations at Monmouth under Paco Lopez, whose ride displeased Albertrani.

Pletcher didn’t name a rider on Red Rifle at entry time, hoping things could get resolved. He was notified at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday by the stewards that he had to name a rider by the end of that day’s card or they would name one for him.

“My beef is [Muzikar] informed the other guys five or six days in advance that he was riding our horse, and [the stewards] gave me a couple of hours notice,” Pletcher said. “Obviously, you’d like the same guy that just won a graded stakes on him to ride him. I didn’t think it was fair to the horse or the ownership to go that way. I’ve been training 19 years, and I never had an issue like this. I’ve never gone to the stewards about a call with a rider in my career. Apparently, that doesn’t give you any benefit of the doubt with those guys.”

Muzikar, who could face a fine for failure to tend to business, said jockeys get taken off all the time on short notice and the stewards don’t force the trainers to keep those commitments.

“I’m not saying it’s right to get out of the call, but it happens to us all the time,” Muzikar said.”