It’s not all roses for Sonny Leon.
The jockey who rode 80-1 lengthy shot Wealthy Strike to a stunning victory on the Kentucky Derby is serving a suspension this week that can hold him from using till Friday.
The Courier Journal experiences Leon obtained a four-day ban for careless using in a earlier race and that it's his fifth suspension since September. Three had been for careless using, and one was for “presenting false and altered paperwork from a bodily examination to West Virginia stewards and one other for inflicting seen accidents on one among his mounts by misuse of the whip,” the paper discovered.
The 5 suspensions totaled 32 days.
The Venezuelan’s dwelling monitor is Cincinnati’s Belterra Park, and he'll journey in seven races there on Friday. Nevertheless, his win within the first leg of the Triple Crown seems to be opening up new alternatives for the 32-year-old.
“And not using a shadow of a doubt, it’s put him on the map,” his agent Jeff Perrin instructed the paper. “It’s onerous to fathom. Our dream was to attract in and get into the Derby.”
Leon masterfully rode Wealthy Strike on Saturday by the crowded 20-horse discipline to chase down the favourite, Epicenter, and seize a victory noticed nobody may have predicted. Overheard views confirmed simply how exact Leon needed to be as he prodded Wealthy Strike from the again of the pack as much as the frontrunners.
“We’re nonetheless attempting to come back again to earth,” Perrin mentioned. “I’ve reached out to a number of the trainers on the bottom that I talked to on Derby weekend. What we’re not going to do is neglect the individuals who helped us get to the Derby.”
Leon and Perrin have fielded provides from Gulfstream and Churchill Downs this week for attainable rides, nonetheless he first should full his suspension, which was lowered from eight to 4 days as a result of he opted to not enchantment.
Leon was most not too long ago suspended for an April 27 incident at Ohio’s Thistledown, the place — based on the Courier Journal — stewards dominated that Leon “intentionally and aggressively steered in in the direction of the rail to dam on-coming horses on the within.”
The largest query surrounding Leon, although is that if Wealthy Strike will run in The Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on Could 21.
“So long as he’s OK and after per week I do know that it’s the proper factor to do, we’ll do it,” veteran coach Reed mentioned Sunday morning at Churchill Downs. “I've to do what I’ve completed from day one with this horse, and that’s handle him and deal with him.”
Post a Comment