Curious about Jockey Suspensions

Just curious about suspensions in other countries and how they are handled over here. I know how Fergal Lynch got his reacing license taken away because he had not served out or paid his fine in the uk but currently there is an irish jockey in ky who rides at the surrounding tracks who recently was written about in the racing post for not serving out his ban or fine for race fixing and passing along information.

how does this work? had the us become the land of opportunity for jockeys who dont feel like facing the music?

It has nothing to do with the country per se, but everything to do with the specific jurisdiction handing down the fine or suspension. No jurisdiction is required to honour the ruling of another unless the ruling is something major (drugs, race fixing, etc). Bad riding or driving in one place doesn’t usually follow a person, nor does non-payment of bills nor failure to comply with claiming and/or purchasing rules. I know of people racing in California who cannot race in Canada for example and a few cannot race anywhere BUT there. Conversely, I know people racing in British Columbia who are definitely not welcome anywhere else in Canada, but can race in the States. It’s a complex system made up of national and regional governing bodies, and mostly, all that can be upheld are what comes down to criminal behaviour in some degree and most rulings just don’t reach that far by the nature of them. You cannot equate being late for retention barn or late to the spit box with a drug positive, horse or human or assault or fraud and the same applies to rules applied specifically to the actual race - a guy can get days for cutting someone off at Track X but can still ride or drive at Track Y one state/province over and sometimes those rulings are ONLY for that facility so the offender serves his penance for WEG by going to another track not under WEG umbrella. See what I mean about complicated??

Speaking of Suspensions- Has anyone heard anything about the fistfight on horseback jockeys? Eriluis Vaz in particular? Were they fined? Suspended?

Just curious that’s all!

Not true. Suspensions, even for “bad riding”, are reciprocal. No jurisdiction is legally bound to honour other jurisdictions suspensions/bans, but almost all invariably do. You’ll remember that last year’s BC Classic winner Raven’s Pass was ridden by Frankie Dettori as his regular jock Jimmy Fortune had picked up a 10-day ban for careless riding in England.

The Lynch affair was different in that he wasn’t technically suspended/banned. The BHA had arranged a plea bargain with Lynch whereby he agreed to pay a fine and they would promise “not to invite any other jurisdiction to impose any restriction on Lynch’s licence”. In other words they said go be someone else’s problem. A similar deal happened with Biancone in Hong Kong.

Who is the jock in KY?

i sent you a pm drvmb1ggl