Video evidence behind Crispin's suspension in Maryland

Alexander Crispin, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice rider of 2020, was recently suspended for 30 days by Maryland stewards after video evidence emerged of him weighing out after a January race five pounds below the assigned weight, according to stewards at Laurel Park.

Adam Campola, Maryland’s chief state steward, said that Crispin weighed out at 110 pounds after riding Alpha Queue on Jan. 16 to a third-place finish. Minutes prior, Crispin had weighed in at 115 pounds. Both weighings were recorded on cameras, Campola said.

“You could obviously see there was a discrepancy,” Campola said.

The account by Campola is the first to provide details about the reason behind the suspension, which was first reported by Daily Racing Form on Monday. Although racing rules in Maryland and other states require horses to be disqualified if they carry less weight than assigned, stewards have wide discretion on penalizing riders, and it is rare for a suspension to be issued unless the rider deliberately removed weight or had knowledge that he was underweight during the race, according to stewards.

Campola said the three Laurel stewards didn’t know how the weight was removed, and that Crispin did not provide an explanation for the discrepancy at a hearing last week. Crispin’s attorney, Michael Berey, declined to comment on his representation of the rider on Monday, citing attorney-client privilege.

Crispin is the leading jockey at Laurel this year. His suspension started on Monday.

Campola also said that Crispin had been called before the stewards prior to the Jan. 16 race due to rumors that were circulating on the backside about the jockey possibly riding underweight.

“We called him in and said we were hearing things, but didn’t have any evidence,” Campola said. “We told him that we weren’t going to do anything now, but if we do have evidence, we’re calling him back in.”

Like many other racetracks during the pandemic, Laurel moved its weigh-in and weigh-out stations as part of a raft of new protocols designed to protect riders from any potential spread of the virus. For a time, the track did not have video cameras trained on the stations, Campola said, as is recommended for racetracks.

Campola said that despite having evidence of only one race in which there was a discrepancy, the stewards thought they needed to send a message to Crispin with a 30-day suspension. Alpha Queue was the only horse to be disqualified from any of Crispin’s winning rides this year.

“We felt, as a group, that it was an integrity issue, and it needed to be addressed,” Campola said. “We wanted to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”