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The jockey who rode Sovereignty to victory astatine past weekend's Kentucky Derby has been issued a good and suspension for striking the 3-year-old colt with his riding harvest an excessive magnitude during the race.
Jockey Junior Alvarado was fixed a $62,000 good and suspended 2 upcoming racing days astatine Churchill Downs for violating the rules of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, a nationwide enactment that regulates the sport.
In a ruling handed down Friday, the Kentucky Board of Stewards, which oversees horseracing successful Kentucky, determined that Alvarado struck Sovereignty 8 times with his riding crop, "which is much than the permitted amount" nether HISA rules, HISA spokesperson Mandy Minger told CBS News successful a connection Saturday.
Under the HISA rule, a harvest tin lone beryllium utilized a maximum of six times during a race.
The good for specified a usurpation is 10% of the jockey's information of the $3.1 cardinal purse. Alvarado pocketed $310,000 for the win, meaning helium would get a $31,000 fine.
However, this marked the 2nd clip successful the past 180 days successful which Alvarado had violated the regularisation portion racing successful Kentucky, which led to stewards doubling the good nether an "escalating punishment structure," Minger explained, resulting successful the $62,000 number, on with the two-day suspension that volition beryllium served astatine the extremity of May.
Jockey Junior Alvarado celebrates atop Sovereignty aft winning the 151st moving of the Kentucky Derby astatine Churchill Downs connected May 3, 2025, successful Louisville, Kentucky.
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All jockey harvest fines spell towards a jockey intelligence wellness program, HISA said.
Sovereignty is owned by Godolphin —the sanction of the racing unchangeable of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum — and trained by William Mott. Sovereignty entered the 151st Kentucky Derby astatine 5-1 odds, but edged retired the dense favorite, Journalism, successful a thrilling decorativeness successful muddy, sloppy conditions.
It was announced earlier this week that Sovereignty volition not tally successful Preakness Stakes connected May 17, ending his chances of a Triple Crown, a feat which has not been achieved since Justify did it successful 2018.
However, Mott told reporters that Sovereignty is inactive expected to tally successful the Belmont Stakes connected June 7, the last contention of the Triple Crown.
Prior to the May 3 Derby, Sovereignty had finished 2nd successful March's Florida Derby and won the Fountain of Youth Stakes earlier that month, arsenic good arsenic the Street Sense Stakes past October.
Alex Sundby contributed to this report.
Faris Tanyos is simply a quality exertion for CBSNews.com, wherever helium writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He antecedently worked arsenic a integer quality shaper astatine respective section quality stations up and down the West Coast.
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