It’s not all roses for Sonny Leon.
The jockey who rode 80-1 long shot Rich Strike to a shocking victory at the Kentucky Derby is serving a suspension this week that will keep him from riding until Friday.
The Courier Journal reports Leon got a four-day ban for careless riding in a previous race and that it is his fifth suspension since September. Three were for careless riding, and one was for “presenting false and altered documents from a physical examination to West Virginia stewards and another for inflicting visible injuries on one of his mounts through misuse of the whip,” the paper found.
The five suspensions totaled 32 days.
The Venezuelan’s home track is Cincinnati’s Belterra Park, and he will ride in seven races there on Friday. However, his win in the first leg of the Triple Crown appears to be opening up new opportunities for the 32-year-old.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, it’s put him on the map,” his agent Jeff Perrin told the paper. “It’s hard to fathom. Our dream was to draw in and get into the Derby.”
Sonny Leon celebrates winning the Kentucky Derby on top of Rich Strike.USA TODAY SportsLeon masterfully rode Rich Strike on Saturday through the crowded 20-horse field to chase down the favorite, Epicenter, and capture a victory saw no one could have predicted. Overheard views showed just how precise Leon had to be as he prodded Rich Strike from the back of the pack up to the frontrunners.
“We’re still trying to come back to earth,” Perrin said. “I’ve reached out to some of the trainers on the backside that I talked to on Derby weekend. What we’re not going to do is forget the people who helped us get to the Derby.”
Leon and Perrin have fielded offers from Gulfstream and Churchill Downs this week for possible rides, however he first must complete his suspension, which was reduced from eight to four days because he opted not to appeal.
Sonny Leon on Rich Strike (right) in the stretch run of the Kentucky Derby.AP
Sonny Leon on Rich StrikeAlex Evers/CSM/ShutterstockLeon was most recently suspended for an April 27 incident at Ohio’s Thistledown, where — according to the Courier Journal — stewards ruled that Leon “deliberately and aggressively steered in towards the rail to block on-coming horses on the inside.”
The biggest question surrounding Leon, though is if Rich Strike will run in The Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 21.
“As long as he’s OK and after a week I know that it’s the right thing to do, we’ll do it,” veteran trainer Reed said Sunday morning at Churchill Downs. “I have to do what I’ve done from day one with this horse, and that’s manage him and take care of him.”
