Lopez Suspended One Day, Fined $500 for Saratoga Ride

[Wandering Eyes]

Serial whip-violator Paco Lopez has been suspended one day and fined $500 after raising his crop with the wrist above his helmet in the fifth race at Saratoga on September 5, according to a ruling posted on the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) website on September 11.

His suspension will run on September 20. He did not appeal the ruling.

According to HISA rule 2280 (c)(1), a jockey shall not “raise the crop with the Jockey's wrist above the Jockey's helmet when using the crop.”

This is far from Lopez's first brush with the stewards over his conduct in the saddle.

Most recently, after initially being handed a 30-day suspension for his involvement aboard I Love Giraffes (Charlatan) in a four-horse spill in the Wild Applause Stakes at Saratoga on July 3, the penalty was reduced last month to a 20-day suspension, said Lopez's attorney Drew Mollica.

“By agreement of the parties in a good faith agreement with the New York State Gaming Commission, we settled at 20 [days],” said Mollica.

The suspension will be conducted next year at Saratoga, said Mollica.

On December 3, 2024, Lopez was caught on camera striking his mount National Law down the neck after winning the fifth race at Parx Racing.

In a subsequent agreed order with HISA, Lopez agreed to make separate $8,000 donations to the Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund and to the Second Call Thoroughbred Adoption and Placement program (or a similar organization), complete anger management classes, and was placed on two years probation.

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