Days after the race triumph, Kentucky Derby-victiming jockey Sonny Leon is serving a suspension for unwary riding.
80-1 longshot Rich Strike to victory at Churchill Downs on Saturday after a horse was registered recently as a replacement for a horse that scrabbled. This week, Leon is serving a four-day suspension for careless driving in the race on April 27 at Ohio’s Thistledown Racecourse; Associated Press reports.
Leon’s fifth suspension is from last fall. The Louisville Courier Journal reports that those three suspensions are for careless riding. He served a separate suspension for “false documents and altered physical examination by West Virginia administrators and other for visible injuries in one mound during the abuse of a whip.” inbox journal reports.
In total, he was suspended 32 days after Sept. 15. Jeff Perrin said his agent told AP that the Lion must choose to ride in the Preakness if Rich entered the Strike.
Will Rich Hit Run in the Preakness?
Rich Beat owner Rick Dawson and trainer Eric Reed I have not yet determined if the horse is running in the second leg of the Triple Crown, at the hour of May 21 This week said pen initially thought he was in five-week break for Rich after the Derby before racing in Belmont Stai on June 11. A throw to the triple crown obviously changes that equation.
“There’s something we can’t compete,” said Reed. “It’s what shoot does” [a chance at winning] Belmont at all? “The risk of injury, the risk of getting control, the risk of injury … all players are questioning whether they can pursue history.”
Know that AP Lion Perrin is ready to ride to the Preakness if he gets the call.
“Our job is to go where we need to be, but we don’t make those decisions,” Perrin said.
For now, Leon is sidelined after Ohio State managers decided to “deliberately and aggressively” steer their horse One Glamorous Gal to the closures in an effort to stop the other team down the stretch of the April 27 race. One Glamorous Gal was rebuffed from third place and placed sixth on account of the violation and made a fine. Per AP, Leo’s suspension began Monday and ends on Thursday.