By Bill Finley
The Churchill Downs stewards have suspended jockey Sonny Leon 15 days for his controversial ride on second-place finisher Rich Strike (Keen Ice) in Saturday's GII Lukas Classic S.
The head-on view of the race clearly showed Leon leaning into jockey Tyler Gaffalione on winner Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) and he appeared to elbow his rival rider.
In a ruling issued Sunday, the stewards determined that Leon was guilty of “intentionally attempting to interfere with and impede the progress of a rival by repeatedly making physical contact with another rider in the stretch.”
Leon did not respond to a text message from the TDN seeking comment.
At about the time that Rich Strike started to come over and jostle with Hod Rod Charli,e it appeared that Leon's saddle might have slipped, which could have caused him to lose balance. Rich Strike's trainer, Eric Reed, told Horse Racing Nation that Leon told him his saddle did in fact slip.
“Sonny said the saddle loosened to the left,” Reed told the website. “He said, 'I started to lose my balance. The saddle slipped over and made me lean to the left.' If that doesn't happen, we win the race.”
Rich Strike passed Hot Rod Charlie a few jumps before the wire and appeared to have the race won, but Hot Rod Charlie surged again in the final strides to win by a head.
Several pundits took to Twitter to claim that Rich Strike would have won if not for the incident and that Leon cost his mount the race. Retired jockey and TV analyst Richard Migliore tweeted:
After watching the Lukas classic numerous times @SONNYLEON1 cost Rich Strike the win by pulling him over to Hot Rod Charlie and putting his elbow into @Tyler_Gaff instead of going forward and driving to the wire. When does this BS stop? It's horse racing not jockey racing. Enough
— TheMig4450 (@mig4450) October 2, 2022
Leon's suspension is for 15 racing days and begins Oct. 9 and runs through Oct. 29.
Leon's greatest moment came in the GI Kentucky Derby when the jockey, who was largely unknown outside the Ohio circuit, guided Rich Strike to victory and was widely praised for his ride.
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