Jockeys’ Guild Issues Statement Defending Machado in ‘Baseless’ Lawsuit

[Wandering Eyes]

The Jockeys' Guild on Friday issued a statement defending jockey Luan Machado one day after news broke that the 10-year veteran rider was being sued in a Kentucky court by the owner and breeder of a horse he rode at Churchill Downs in November who lost by a neck but likely would have won if Machado hadn't prematurely geared him down with a 2 1/2-length lead inside the eighth pole.

The Guild's press release Feb. 28 stated that the allegations asserted against Machado “are utterly baseless.”

The Guild's statement continued: “They are also dangerous. The Kentucky legislature has entrusted the stewards of the Kentucky Horse Racing & Gaming Corporation with responsibility for determining if there has been a violation of the racing rules. The stewards made such a determination here and imposed a fine and suspension on Mr. Machado, which he paid and has served. There is absolutely no basis for private parties to try to undermine the stewards' statutorily-entrusted decision by supplanting it with their own judgment as to what the appropriate penalty should be.”

As reported Feb. 27 by Ray Paulick of the Paulick Report, “A complaint filed in Jefferson Circuit Court by Gray V Train Racing and Westbrook Stables, the respective owner and breeder of Hold My Bourbon (Anchor Down), alleges Machado breached his contract and showed negligence as a licensed professional jockey by failing to ride Hold My Bourbon to the finish line 'with full effort' in the Nov. 28 allowance race.”

Shortly after the incident, Churchill Downs stewards suspended Machado four days and fined him $1,000 for “easing up on his mount approaching the finish without adequate cause.”

The gaffe stood at the time because just six weeks earlier, Machado had been suspended for three days and fined $2,500 for easing up at the alternate sixteenth-pole finish wire at Keeneland Race Course, costing his mount, who had been clear by open lengths in that Oct. 16 race, a near-certain victory.

The Paulick Report story stated that the plaintiffs (Angela Lewis, the registered agent for Gray V Train Racing, and Todd and Angela Lewis, the registered agents for Westbrook Stables) are alleging “professional negligence” because Machado purportedly “failed to perform according to the expectations of his profession.”

According to the Paulick Report, “The plaintiffs say Machado's actions cost them $47,560 in lost purse money and $3,000 in Kentucky Thoroughbred Breeders Incentive Funds,” using the difference between first- and second-place purse winnings as the basis.

The Paulick Report stated that the plaintiffs are further alleging that they have “suffered unliquidated damages” and other “consequential damages.”

Efforts to reach Machado for comment prior to deadline for this story were not successful.

The post Jockeys’ Guild Issues Statement Defending Machado in ‘Baseless’ Lawsuit appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article